


CoSL 14: Question and Answer

by Dracophile



Series: Grimm-The Casebook of Sloane Larson [14]
Category: Grimm (TV)
Genre: Episode Remix, episode rewrite
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-03
Updated: 2019-07-03
Packaged: 2020-06-03 06:21:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,532
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19458160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dracophile/pseuds/Dracophile
Summary: Part 14 of THE CASEBOOK OF SLOANE LARSONRewrites of Mommy Dearest, Once We Were Gods, and The Show Must Go OnWhen a wesen attacks a friend of Wu's, Sloane surprises Nick and Hank by considering telling him the truth.Then they deal with a people risking their lives and killing to get back a woged egyptian mummy.And finally the carnival is in town, and some visitors are turning up dead--but more than that, it's Sloane's Birthday?!





	CoSL 14: Question and Answer

**Author's Note:**

> So, things are going to start diverging a bit here--more notes at the end!

Mommy Dearest

\-------------------------

After the events of curing Nick, Sloane opted to take a little time off. She took about a week, recuperating her hand which thankfully did not turn black and fall off. Nick called it a “Stay-cation”, since she didn’t go anywhere, but he didn’t blame her for needing a breather. As the rare 3-person team at the station it wasn’t a big deal for her to be out while he returned sooner to catch up on work.

In the past she would usually despise “taking it easy”. It was hunt, travel, hunt, travel, maybe sleep and heal when the time was available. But suddenly she was giving in to the decadence of lounging on the couch and watching TV, going out for food casually. She walked neighborhoods, ate out leisurely, and even checked out some of the local culture—art shows and live music and such. It was strange but it made her feel more like she was a citizen of Portland. And when the outside world got to be too much, it was back home and catching up on shows she didn’t let herself even think about watching before. And it felt _good_ to finally do it.

But it couldn’t stay quiet for long.

It was the last evening of her staycation when there was a knock at the door. She was confused but paused the show and went over slowly. Her bat was still in the umbrella stand if necessary. Looking out the peephole, she saw Hank and Nick standing on her porch, and they looked concerned. “Guys?” She opened the door, blinking in surprise.

“Sloane, sorry we didn’t call first but…uh, what is that on your head?” Nick asked, distracted by the blue cap on her head.

Sloane rolled her eyes. “It’s a shower cap. I’m touching up my hair.”

“Your hair?”

“Yeah, this isn’t my natural hair color so it’s gotta be re-dyed sometimes. Sorry to ruin the illusion, but surprise,” she said, with a mock wave of her hands. “Now what’s up?”

“Uh, right,” Hank said. “We got something weird again. Mind listening to us go over it?”

“No, yeah, of course,” she stepped aside. “Come on in. It’s about time I rinse this out, just give me a second.” She turned and then quickly ran over and turned off her TV. Her hair was one thing, but she had no intention of them seeing her watching _Dancing with the Stars_. Nick and Hank looked at her oddly, but she just dropped the remote and went to wash out her hair.

Coming back out, she was toweling her hair while that was now a fresher platinum blonde all over. “Okay, so what’s happened now?”

“Something attacked a friend of Wu’s,” Hank said.

Sloane stood a bit straighter and removed the towel. “Shit, what happened?”

“A friend of his moved here with her husband from the Philippines. She’s like 6 months pregnant and something came through the window and attacked her.”

“And you think it’s wesen?”

Nick pulled up pictures on his phone. “Came through the window on the second floor. She was wounded with no obvious marks—except through her navel. She fought back and the result was spray up the walls.” Sloane flipped through, frowning at the pics and wondering who would do that to a pregnant woman. Then she got to a pick of a windowsill with deep scratches in it. “And then there’s those scratch marks. There’s ones on the tree by the window too.”

“What did it do to her?”

“It seemed to stick something through her navel,” Hank said with disgust, shuddering. “And pulled out a lot of amniotic fluid.”

“And the baby?”

“They said it’ll be okay. But it’s definitely worrying. The doctor said the only thing he can think of for this is stem cells but doing it like this…” he shook his head.

“We questioned the neighbor who came to check on her and found her on the floor of their bedroom. She didn’t see anything, but she did mention a “ticking” nose though,” Nick added.

“Ticking…” she muttered.

“Does this sound familiar?” He asked hopefully.

“It does…But only vaguely. You said they’re from the Philippines?”

“Yeah, where Wu grew up. Apparently, they’ve been friends since they were toddlers, him and Dana.”

Sloane blew out a breath. “I stayed in Japan for a while a few years ago and there’s a bit of cross relation with the two. I remember seeing some documents at the Tokyo library about Filipino wesen—and man they had some scary ones. Like ones that freaked even me out. And a lot of them liked going after pregnant women…”

“So, it narrows it down to a region but not a species necessarily,” Nick sighed.

“More information might help. Wu’s friend, how is she?”

“She’s alive,” Hank said. “But she was sedated somehow during the attack and is still out of it. Doctors are running tests to see what exactly caused it. They said she might be ready tomorrow. We already talked a bit to the husband; he was out picking up her pre-natal meds so he’s got an alibi, but we can’t be sure he’s not in on it yet. I know some wesen have some messed up family traditions…”

“We just wanted to see if you knew what it might be and how to get it sooner,” Nick added.

Sloane sighed. “I wish I did…”

“…Huh. Usually you’d get a lot more frustrated that you didn’t know,” Nick pointed out.

Sloane shrugged. “I’ve kind of come to accept that Portland is just going to be a wesen magnet for the weird. Also, I’ve thought about it and…well, before, I was looking for public wesen attacks or issues. Reading papers, keeping my ear to the ground, getting requests from libraries...But for those, they have to generally make the news or ping the radar, so to speak. Being a cop, I’m seeing stuff people would write off as just weird murders. They have those hidden depths and means though that Grimms see…I’m learning stuff I didn’t even know I needed to learn because these crimes are much more than what they seem on the surface. It’s good and I just gotta accept I wasn’t prepared for everything despite Deirdre’s efforts.”

Nick smiled. “Well, glad at least I’m not the only one still on a learning curve.”

“Hey, you two are like Mr. Miyagi compared to me,” Hank said, holding up his hands.

“Who?” Sloane asked.

“Okay, next movie night we watch, Karate Kid,” Hank said. “At least parts one and two.”

Sloane just smiled quizzically but nodded. “Okay…Well, I’m back tomorrow. I can go over stuff until we get the okay to check on her and join you for the rest.”

“That sounds like a plan,” Nick said, standing. “Sorry if we made your last night less relaxing.”

“Eh, I can’t relax for long. Eventually I’d need to fight something,” she said with a shrug.

Nick nodded a bit then paused. “Oh, one other thing…Wu asked us to keep him updated on the case. He’s real close to Dana.”

“Hmmm…Might not be easy if it is wesen related, he might recommend us for a psych evaluation,” she sighed.

“No kidding,” Hank sighed. “We’re not sure what we’re going to tell him though. I mean, best I can come up with is a ring of stem cell thieves, but that’s kinda out there even for human crimes…”

Sloane nodded. “I think we’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. We won’t even know how what it is till we do more research.”

They nodded and Nick smiled. “Hank’s joining me and Juliette for dinner, you interested?”

“Beat you to it and ordered in I’m afraid,” she smiled. “Give me more than a few minutes notice and we’ll see about next time.”

“Fair enough,” he laughed. “We’d better get going though.”

She walked them to the door. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow.”

“See you then,” Hank said.

“Night, Sloane.”

She smiled and closed and locked the door again. Sighing, she leaned back and had to admit it was a bit disappointing to return on a rough case. Someone attacking a pregnant woman? Even at her most brutal hunts she would not go that far. But hunting down the one that did sounded at least satisfying. Right at that time though, finding out who was going home for their dance was a bit more tempting.

\-----------------------

Sloane met them at the station, where Hank updated her on the case again officially. They started work looking through records for Dana and Sam Tomas for anything that stood out. Sam’s company had only glowing reviews for him however, both in Manila and the US, and nothing stood out regarding Dana either. Her prenatal vitamins had no red flags, and nothing had been tampered with they could find, so how she got drugged was still a pressing issue. Nick got the call then that Dana was awake and could have visitors.

Before they went in, the doctor offered to walk them over with a look of concern to go over the results they found. “We determined what she was drugged with. We found a large amount of an over-the-counter sedative called valerian root in her system.”

“Valerian root?” Sloane asked in surprise.

“That's not on her list of prescribed medications?” Nick asked, glancing at her.

“She wouldn't be taking this for pregnancy,” the doctor said. “And in large doses, it can cause blackouts.” They arrived at the door and he glanced in. “She doesn't seem to remember much about what happened.”

“Maybe that’s for the best,” Sloane muttered.

Nick nodded and then nodded to the doctor. “Thanks.” He knocked on the door, then opened it and stepped in first with Hank and Sloane close behind. “Dana, I'm Detective Burkhardt. This is Detective Griffin and Detective Larson.”

“How are you feeling?” Hank asked gently.

“A little weak, but better,” she said slowly, looking very tired. One hand was moving over her stomach in worried but protective fashion.

“Do you feel up to answering some questions?” Nick asked.

She sighed but nodded. “All right.”

The detectives glanced at one another to see who wanted to start. Sloane decided to step up to the plate. “What do you remember anything about that night?”

Dana licked her lips and looked thoughtful. “I remember reading and then falling asleep and then waking up because of this pain.” She swallowed, looking haunted. “It hurt more than anything I've ever felt…” she shook her head softly, trying to clear it. “I can't remember anything else. It was like a dream.”

Hank nodded. “Did you see anything outside your window?”

“I-I can't remember,” she said, shaking her head again.

“Did you hear anything... A ticking sound?” Nick tried. “Your neighbor Liz says she remembers a ticking sound.”

Dana frowned, trying to think, but then sighed. “Not really…”

Nick sighed but pushed forward. “Dana, the doctors found a sedative in your system called valerian root.”

“Root? As in a kind of plant?” came an incredulous voice behind them. The detectives all turned to see Wu in the doorway behind them, looking tired as well and very concerned. He held up his hands at them guiltily. “I'm sorry. I just got here. Keep going.” He smiled comfortingly at Dana, who tried to smile back but just looked tired.

“Did you take any or eat anything that contained valerian?” Nick continued.

Dana shook her head. “I have a strict list of vitamins and meds to take, and sedatives are not on it.”

Hank nodded, trying not to sigh. “That's all we need for now. Get some rest.”

She nodded, watching them leave, Wu waving at her a moment before joining them by the front desk of the floor. “So, what do you think?”

“We don’t have much to think on yet,” Sloane said honestly.

“No prints, no motive, no suspects,” Nick agreed with a sigh.

“You come up with anything?” Hank asked. “Anybody or something that came to mind?”

Wu looked hesitant. “Well, it's gonna sound really strange, but, uh... What if...” He bit his lip, looking unsure.

“What if what?” Nick asked.

“What if it's...” he tried again but finally just sighed. “Ah. I am overthinking this. I should just let you do your job.”

Sloane frowned, watching him head back to Dana’s room. Wu had something in mind for sure, but he was hesitant voicing it. There could be a lot of reasons behind that, but she knew from experience people—especially those who worked where logic should reign, like law enforcement and sciences—were hesitant to voice the “supernatural” ideas. She wondered if Wu would be more open the wesen idea than they thought.

\--------------------

Their next stop was the spice shop and Rosalee’s expertise. The moment they mentioned valerian root she was grabbing her ladder and climbing up a shelf.

“Here it is, valerian root.” She grabbed a jar and brought it down for them to look at more closely. “It's a natural sedative used in teas and oils, but it can be really dangerous in large doses. Some call it nature's valium.”

Sloane opened the jar and smelled it. “Yeah. Deirdre used to give me some when I was younger.” Everyone paused and looked at her in shock and a bit of horror. “…what? I didn’t always sleep well, and it helped. She never overdosed me.”

“How young was younger?” Monroe asked seriously.

“…Since a little after she took me in, so I guess 9 on until I learned to deal with things,” she shrugged. “I mean, I know it’s unorthodox, but given what was going on with me it was easier on both of us.”

Rosalee looked ready to fight something but took a deep breath. “That’s still…you were a kid. That’s even more dangerous.”

“Well we got someone feeding it to a pregnant lady, so let’s focus on that one for now,” Sloane said, handing the jar and conversation back to Nick.

Nick nodded but agreed with Rosalee that drugging a kid to sleep through what was probably a lot of post-traumatic nightmares was cold to say the least. “Whoever attacked Dana wanted to make sure she was out cold.”

Rosalee refocused as well. “Maybe valerian was used instead of something with harsher chemicals that could potentially harm a fetus.”

“Why pump out the amniotic fluid but keep the fetus intact?” Hank asked, taking the jar and looking it over again before setting on the counter.

“There are ancient rituals where it's believed the health and youth of a baby can be absorbed. Your case could have something to do with that,” Rosalee said, looking a touch grossed out.

“Yeah, I have an aunt and Uncle that used to eat their newborns' placentas, you know, fry 'em up with a little butter and honey. But I'm sorry. This is going too far.”

Sloane looked at him askance. “This is going too far—you just gave a recipe for a placenta omelet!”

“Hey, it’s very natural, okay? Plenty in the animal kingdom do it,” he said defensively. “Also, all omelets are placenta omelets when you think about it. Kinda glad I’m vegan again...”

“Oh, come on!” she said, looking at him in disgust. “That’s my breakfast!”

“Regardless of how or why it’s ingested, we have a slight lead here,” Nick said. He looked at Sloane and Hank as he pieced it out. “Maybe if we cross-reference attacks on pregnant women with valerian root, we can find something in the trailer.” Hank and Sloane nodded, turning to head towards the door.

“Need help?” Rosalee called.

“Wouldn't hurt!” Hank called.

“Anybody else got the heebie-jeebies?” Monroe asked.

“Yes, you heebie-jeebied my omelets!”

\-------------------------

Having five sets of eyes was a huge asset, Sloane had to admit. She’d also been helping to organize Marie’s library in the trailer, getting Nick a rolodex. He considered a digital one, but when she brought up that the lights and an occasional phone were about what the trailer could handle on its battery, he agreed a rolodex might work best. They hadn’t had time to go through all of them and copy down a reference for each, but she was able to flip through and make a few general notes on dates and places and modus operandi.

“Got something,” Nick said. “"I arrive in the Philippines at Manila, May of 1904, after a long arduous voyage from..."”

“Do we have to start at the beginning?” Hank asked.

“Yeah, pick it up right before the "and then I cut off his head" part,” Monroe agreed.

“All right,” he said, looking okay with that suggestion. “Let’s see…"snuck down the putrid alley…Fetid smell of blood," blah, blah. "Cut off its..." okay, too far.” He back tracked to his previous page and scanned it again, Rosalee looking over his shoulder. “Okay, okay. "After the midwife was able to quell the hemorrhaging, the young woman gained consciousness. She told me it was an Aswang that had caused the tragedy.””

“Aswang,” Sloane murmured. “It does sound familiar…I think I saw something in Japan on them, but I don’t remember everything. Does it detach in half at the waist with a lot of organs hanging out as it flies around on bat wings?”

“What the hell?” Monroe asked.

“Hey, I saw that in a book and it stuck with me, okay? I’ve always thought what the hell I’d do if I saw that thing in real life.”

“Yeah, I’m wondering too. Screaming like a little girl comes to mind.”

“Well, there’s no detaching in half here and but doesn’t get prettier…” Nick said, sounding relieved. “"She had been sold as a bride, to be impregnated so that her firstborn may be consumed as a means for a prolonged, healthy life.””

“Consumed?” Sloane asked, grimacing.

“This is what we're looking for,” Rosalee said, looking over the book with Nick. Monroe stood to come look with them. “"Aswangs use their long tongues to inject chewed up valerian root to sedate their victims as they attack."”

“That explains why Dana can't remember much,” Nick said, nodding.

“"These attacks are often incorrectly diagnosed as miscarriages,”” Rosalee went on, ““and for the process to work, the fetus must be a blood relative to the Aswang."”

“That's some messed up family obligations,” Hank said.

“Wait, what does that say?” Monroe asked, pointing at a note in the column. “"I've also learned that Aswang have an alternate name...tik-tiks, due to the ticking sound they make with their tongue."”

“The neighbor said she heard a ticking sound coming from Dana's house,” Hank said, Nick nodding. Nick turned the page and Monroe Recoiled.

“Whoa! There it is. Now we're talking ugly.” Nick turned the book to show them the face that looked a lot like a rotting corpse, with a long, forked tongue snaking out of its mouth.

“Eh, I’ve seen worse,” Sloane said. “But not by much.”

“Now that we know what we're dealing with, what do we tell Wu?” Hank asked.

“Oh, no, no,” Monroe said quickly, shaking his head. “I don't think an Aswang is a very good gateway wesen for a Kehrseite.”

“I'm not sure there is a good gateway,” Hank said, remembering his own experience.

“It's more of a hellgate,” Rosalee agreed.

“We can't risk involving him in something that he doesn't understand,” Nick said.

Hank frowned. “But we can't let him think he's going crazy. I know that feeling too well. And I can't just stand by and...”

Nick sighed but looked back at Hank a bit more firmly. “I don't think we should give him any premature information.”

“Yes, premature information can be very messy,” Monroe agreed.

“Hearing the truth is not the problem. It's seeing and not being able to explain what it is that pushes you over the edge,” Hank said more emphatically.

“You were confronted with it. You had no choice,” Rosalee said sympathetically.

“Hank, I'm sorry. I kind of agree with 'em. I mean, this is life-changing information we're talking about.”

“Wu needs to know what he's going up against. You leave him unprepared, anything could happen. Like that blind hunter, Patrevski,” Hank pointed out.

“Look, I don't want to drag him into this, not unless we absolutely have to,” Nick said. He looked at Sloane, who was apparently deep in thought. “Sloane? What do you think?”

She sighed a bit. “I think you’re both right…It’s a catch 22. We tell Wu the truth, he can think we’re crazy or go into paranoid survival mode knowing there’s monsters out there, no offense,” she said, looking at Rosalee and Monroe.

“None taken, we know what you meant,” Rosalee said, Monroe nodding.

“But at the same time, if we don’t tell him and he sees something he can’t explain, he might still fall down. Honestly, I’d prefer we were there to catch him if that happens. Something I’ve learned, if someone sees something that “normal” people can’t explain, it’s better to be upfront with them. They’ll understand if you explain that no one else would believe them most of the time but having someone who understands helps. I’ve done it with past hunts—heck, I’ve done it with some folks here in Portland.” Hank smiled but Sloane sighed. “Then he’s stuck on this side though and knowing what might be out there…that can be a lot to take in too. Especially in this line of work and hanging around us. We could still be able to take care of this without Wu seeing anything if we play our cards right. Then it would just be a matter of damage control, same as any other case. But the moment he sees something, we need to pull him out of there and explain if we don’t want him ending up worse for wear. But until then, he still gets to live not thinking there’s a world of things that might try to kill him. Ignorance might be bliss so long as it’s not going to kill him.”

Hank frowned a little more but nodded a little. “If that’s what you all think, I guess that’s a good way to put it…”

“Yeah. I can see that,” Nick nodded. “We’ll make sure he’s got a safety net if something gets to him. Like I should’ve had for you, Hank,” Nick said. “I am sorry, for what it’s worth…”

Hank smiled a bit and sighed. “Okay. Let's go see if Dana and Sam have any blood relatives in town.”

\-------------------------------

They were working on tracking down the family history when Sloane’s phone buzzed on her desk. Pulling it over, she frowned slightly—it was a text from Gallin, but it was a business one despite the innocuous subject. _Give me a call when you have a chance. I found a dress in purple I think you would like, but it might be taken already._

 _Purple for royals…_ “Guys, I need to take this.”

“Everything okay?” Nick asked, looking at her in concern.

“I’m not sure but I’ll find out.” She stood and headed for one of the interrogation viewing rooms that were empty, pulling the door closed behind her. She dialed Cynthia’s number. “Cynthia? Did something happen?”

“Possibly,” Cynthia said. “I’m still pulling duty at the Library, and we got word from one of our contacts in Austria is keeping tabs on the Royals. There’s something that’s gone down. They said the royals scrambled at some point a couple of weeks ago and seem to be looking for something. They haven’t found it and are growing a lot more agitated finding it.”

“Any word on what they’re looking for?”

“No. There are a few Laufer in the area we’re trying to contact. Including, well…you said Nick’s mother is Kelly Kessler, right?”

Sloane sighed. “Yeah…She mentioned she was around Austria last time she called, so maybe she knew something was already going down. I take it she may be taking the purple dress?”

“Hey, cut me some slack,” Cynthia said with a laugh. “You try making a simple, easy to understand message that won’t immediately look like “Hey, the royals are doing something we might want to look out for.”. I know you keep your phone from being tapped or traced but if it fell into the wrong hands…”

“No, yeah, I get it,” Sloane said with a chuckle. “Do you think she might need help though?”

“Knowing Kelly Kessler, probably not. But I’m sending out warnings to any Grimms I have contacts for to be safe in case the Verrat are on high alert worldwide. We’re already seeing a lot going through some local towns around Kronenburg Castle for some reason, and they’re causing some issues. Um…would you mind letting Mr. Burkhardt know though?” she asked hesitantly.

Sloane arched her brow. “You’re still scared to call him?”

“Not scared, just…after everything that happened, I don’t know if I can ever make up for that. He’s cured, but he had to go through so much…”

“Honestly, that’s part of being a Grimm,” Sloane sighed. “We’re going to always be going through so much…”

“Yeah…I’m kind of looking forward to a quieter life on my end. But there’s not a lot of Librarians available right now.”

“Look, if they’re having trouble finding someone, just go,” Sloane said honestly. “If the Library is closed for a while, we’ll find our ways around it. I don’t want you getting second thoughts if this is what you want, you should do what you need to for yourself.” It was quiet a moment and Sloane flushed in surprise when she thought she heard crying. “Uh…Cynthia?”

“S-sorry,” she said. “It’s just…it’s been a while since anyone’s said something like that to me. It’s always been about what’s best for others…”

Sloane sobered a bit. “Yeah…I get that. But don’t worry, I’ll tell Nick about the royal situation. If you get more info, just let me know.”

She took a breath on the line and said a little brighter. “Right, thank you. I’ll, um, talk to you later.”

“Right, talk to you later.” Sloane hanged up and sighed, tapping her phone against her chin. Royals on the move could be very bad. Nick had dealt with the Verrat before, but they had luckily retreated after the Cracher Mortal and the death of Renard’s brother. _Renard_ …She looked at the direction of the Captain’s office as though she had x-ray vision to see through the walls. _Does he know about this? What they’re looking for? I gotta imagine he does…_

Sloane exited the room, intent to question Renard, but paused when she almost ran into Wu. “Oh, hey!”

“Hey! Sorry there Sloane,” Wu sighed. “I’m just heading out…”

“Okay…You alright?” she asked, eyeing him a little.

“Yeah, just…shared a weird theory with Nick and Hank. Hank told me to trust my instincts, but my instincts are superstitious assholes I think,” he said tiredly. “I need to go get some sleep.”

“Right…do that and just…let us know if you need anything,” she said.

Wu smiled. “Thanks.” He headed out and Sloane looked up the hall where Hank and Nick were watching Wu with concern.

“Wu told you guys a “weird theory”?” she asked, walking up.

Nick looked like he didn’t want to admit it but leaned in to say quietly. “He said he thinks Sam might be trying to hurt Dana and make it look like an Aswang attack.”

Sloane’s eyebrows shot up. “Oh…so he knows?”

“He doesn’t know,” Hank sighed. “He thinks it’s just his mind playing tricks on him because he knows the legend. But he is on the edge, in more ways than one. I couldn’t bring myself to tell him still though. You guys are right, it’s not an easy thing to just come out and say…”

“Well, either way we might be needing to sit him down and have the talk with him.”

“…Okay, I know what you mean, but odd choice of phrase,” Nick said.

“It was on purpose,” she smiled.

He snorted a laugh. “Well…one other thing he told us was that Sam’s mom is in town. Staying at the Viking Inn, supposedly returning to Manila soon.”

“I can guess what our next stop is then,” she said.

They nodded, heading for the car, but Sloane paused and glanced back through the windows at Renard’s office. She’d have to question their captain later she supposed, but her gut was certain he knew something.

\-----------------------

They arrived at the hotel just after sunset and the manager was easily convinced to let them into the room. He said the older woman who rented it had gone off in a cab shortly before they arrived. In the room they saw the suitcase still there, open on the luggage stand, and another bag on her bed. Going around the bed, Nick found the plane ticket to manila torn up on the floor. Hank immediately asked what cab company the car was from and called them for a destination address while Sloane searched the suitcase. She cursed finding a jar of valerian root under several layers of clothes and showed it to Nick. The manager was worried about a drug dealer, but the detectives were already moving to get to Dana and Sam’s house.

When they arrived, the door was already busted open. Sam was lying at the foot of the stairs, apparently unconscious. Hank called in for paramedics, and then they heard a yell and a crash upstairs. Rushing up, Wu was on the ground and the Aswang was standing over him with its whip like tongue swaying like a snake ready to strike. Nick didn’t hesitate and shot the creature before it could strike Wu again. Wu yelled and backed away, looking at the creature with wide, terrified eyes. The look turned to pure horror as the purple, corpse-like visage melted back into what looked like a harmless old woman.

“I…It was an Aswang! Did you see it?” he said desperately.

“Wu, calm down—” Nick started.

“She wasn’t like that!”

Hank was checking on Dana for a pulse. “Dana’s alive,” he called.

But Wu wasn’t listening, shaking his head. “It changed…I know what I saw, it changed…”

“Wu, calm down! Dana’s alive-”

“It wasn’t her! It wasn’t her; it wasn’t her…it wasn’t her,” he kept repeating.

Sloane set a hand on Nick’s shoulder. “Nick…we’re not explaining that away. He saw and he’s losing it,” Sloane said quietly.

Nick stared at her a moment but sighed. “What do we do?”

“You and Hank need to handle this,” she said, gesturing at the room. “I’m taking Wu somewhere quiet I can work this out with him. Get him to calm down and explain things. Because it’s not going back in the box and he’s not going to think it’s a cougar.”

He nodded. “Okay…you can do that?”

“You’re the one that discharged your weapon, I’m not filling out that paperwork,” she said quietly. Nick rolled his eyes but smiled just a little. She walked over to Wu who was still muttering and staring at the woman on the ground. “Wu? Wu!” she clapped her hands as if to get him out of a trance. He looked up at her, shaking a little and Sloane tried to gentle her expression. “You and I are going to go take a walk.”

“I’m not crazy, I saw it—”

“I know. I did too.”

Wu blinked. “I…y-you did…”

“Hard to miss a tongue like that. But here is not a good place to talk about it. The paramedics are going to take care of Sam and Dana. We’re going to say you helped protect Dana, but you thought you saw someone else and took off after them—but really, I’m taking you somewhere we can talk, and I can explain some stuff to you. Does that sound okay?”

“You…you’re going to explain stuff? Explain this?”

“I have the answers. But we’re running out of time and we need to get out of here now if you want them tonight.” Wu breathed a little easier. Maybe just knowing someone else had seen helped. He nodded slowly. Sloane nodded to Nick and Hank as they headed downstairs. “Give me the keys. You’re in no state to drive,” Sloane said.

Wu shakily got his keys from his pocket and climbed in the passenger seat while Sloane got in the driver’s side. She drove to her house as calmly as she could, glancing at Wu now and then as he ping-ponged between freaking out and calming down or trying to rationalize what he saw. “You…you really saw it…the…”

“Aswang. Yeah, we saw it.”

“We?”

“Nick and Hank definitely saw it too. But it’s not the first for any of us,” Sloane said, pulling into her driveway. She turned off the car and paused before looking at him. “Wu…Generally we try to keep what I’m going to show you under tight wraps. People who see what you did tonight, they usually go two routes. Thinking they’re insane and maybe pushing that down and far away as a repressed memory to try and move on. Or go into it and latch on for all it’s worth and go insane or end up locked up. I don’t think option 1 is looking like something you’re going to do without a fight, and I don’t want to see you go down option 2. Which you would’ve gone down if we didn’t get out of there I’m thinking…”

“…I…thought I was going to have to check myself in somewhere,” he admitted. “I just…that thing…” He reached up and winced at the scratches on his cheek.

“It was real, you’re not crazy. You are lucky you know me and Nick and by extension Hank though because we have a 3rd option for you.”

“Y…you do?” he said.

She nodded and opened the door. “Follow me.” Wu hesitated just a second before scrambling to unbuckle his seatbelt and follow. Sloan opened the door to her home and walked on in. Wu looked around hesitantly, not having come over to Sloane’s house before, but nothing seemed strange so far. “Over here,” Sloane said, going to her spare room. Opening the door, Wu walked in and frowned more.

“I…Sloane, I don’t see anything…”

“Give me a sec, I don’t keep this stuff just out in the open here,” she said. “Sit on the daybed.” Wu slowly said down, flinching and jittering his foot. Sloane opened the closet and Wu could see from where he was that rather than clothes, she had several medieval looking weapons hanging up, and a shelf of books on the side he could see. His eyes widened a little and he swallowed and wondered if he should run for the door. But instead of a weapon, she grabbed a book and walked over to sit next to him. She looked at the book and sighed a bit. “So…I want to reiterate, you’re not crazy. But the world kind of is.” She set a hand on the cover of the book. “This book was written by one of my ancestors. It’s about various kind of creatures we call “wesen”.”

““Wesen?”” Wu asked, his curiosity overriding the trauma for a moment.

“Yeah. So…I’m going to show you one…and I want you to try and stay calm, okay?” Wu nodded slowly and Sloane opened the book to a page and showed him an entry on the wolkeshaber—the wesen that brought her to Portland a year ago. Wu tensed and leaned away with wide eyes.

“What the hell is that?!”

“Calm down,” Sloane said again, taking the book away. “This is called a Wolkeshaber. You’d think of them more like the giants from fairy tales.”

“…giants?” he said, looking more alarmed but also incredulous.

“Look for yourself.” She handed it over to him and Wu hesitated but took it. He started reading and then flipping pages, seeing new wesen on every other page. “I…these are all…”

“Wesen,” she repeated. “Yeah. There are hundreds of kinds in the world. They hide in plain sight because they have a human form, and a wesen form.”

“…Lani Tomas…sh-she…”

“She is, or was, an Aswang,” she nodded. “Nick has that book, so I don’t have the reference with me.”

“Nick has-he has a book with an Aswang in it? Why does he have that?” he asked.

Sloane blew out a breath. “So…this is part of where it gets complicated,” Sloane said. “Nick and I are what are called “Grimms”. We hunt wesen. That’s what these books are for. Before you ask, we’re not quite all human. We can see wesen even when they don’t want to be seen. Not like constantly, but if they betray their nature—as my mentor put it—we can see them. So, we hunt them, to protect people from those that would hurt them. But that’s not every wesen out there.”

“…So, there are ones that…don’t?”

She smiled a little bitterly. “If you had asked me that a year ago, I’d have said they’re all monsters in some way…but I can’t say that now. Nick, Hank and I…we have friends who are wesen. It’s the same with people, there are good and bad ones. And they help us hunt the bad ones. That Aswang? Bad. Very bad. Her son? Maybe a wesen, but…he was trying to protect his wife and child I’m pretty sure. He didn’t want his mom doing that to them or she wouldn’t have pushed him down the stairs. That was her right?”

“Y-yeah, he was like that when I kicked the door in,” he said. He was calming down, looking at the pages again. “So…how do normal people deal with them?”

“…I’ll be honest, we try to keep that from happening as much as possible. Knowledge is power but it’s also danger because wesen generally don’t _want_ people to know what they are. It makes a lot of what they do harder, and generally people might do things to them. And then there’s other factions in the world that don’t want that either. Because it gives them more power to be able to keep things in the shadows. Generally, we Grimms prefer to keep it to a need to know basis so that innocent people don’t get caught up in things. Or try to hunt them and end up missing the mark. That’s happened _a lot,_ so normal humans have ended up dead and probably some innocent wesen too. So, if things work out, they do nothing. Although some have romanced wesen apparently so what do I know?”

Wu sobered a bit. “…Would it be okay for me to…look through these a bit?”

“…Depends, you’re not going to start trying to hunt them, are you?” she asked worriedly. “Like I just said, I dealt with one guy like that already this year and that ended badly, and I really don’t want to have to hurt you.”

Wu shook his head quickly. “No, I…Hunting’s never been my thing unless it’s for information or a perp. I just…I still think I’m dreaming or going nuts…But this lets me know I’m not, if that makes sense. That you already have this stuff. Unless you’re crazy too…”

“…Wu, I’m showing this to you because I know what it’s like not to be believed when you say you saw a monster. Granted I was a kid, but I remember after I saw my grandmother murdered, everyone thinking I was explaining away a traumatic event and giving my psych evaluations. My mentor Deirdre was the first one to show she believed me and get me out of there before they just locked me up…I didn’t want that happening to someone else.”

“God, I’m sorry,” Wu said with a wince.

She nodded but pressed on. “Hank knows that feeling too. And I’ve seen what seeing wesen as a regular human does to some other people. But this world is really, really dangerous. You can take heart knowing you’re not alone in seeing them, but I’d really think hard about how involved you want to be in this world. I can’t shut the door on you again but you gotta decide if you want to step in. Otherwise…I would say leave it to us unless you’re stepping through.”

Wu nodded slowly again, looking down at the book. “…I get what you mean about the door, but…I want to know a bit more before I decide.”

Sloane nodded back. “Okay…you can look through them but try not to do much to the weapons—just for your own safety. I’ll get you something for your scratches too.” She stood and headed for the door.

“…Why didn’t Nick or Hank tell me?” Wu asked.

Sloane looked back and saw that he was hurt by the thought his friends keeping this valuable information from him. “…Would you have believed them?”

“…Heh, probably not, I’d think they were making fun of me,” he admitted.

Sloane nodded. “Hank wanted to tell you but…it’s not easy. I think they just wanted to spare you having to see all this. They’re annoyingly soft-hearted like that.” She said with a small smile. “I wasn’t around for Hank, but he told me he thought he was going nuts too when he saw a wesen the first time. Nick…Grimms don’t get a choice. We’re shoved through the door at some point and it’s done a lot to mess up his life. Mine too, I guess. Hank chose to step through and now he still gets mixed up in dangerous stuff, even if he knows what it is. You got an out if you want. I know someone moving to leave the life behind because she can, but you never really leave it once you know.”

“…So, I might get caught up in more of…this?”

“It’s possible,” she nodded slowly. “That’s why Nick hesitated. Again, they are soft-hearted.”

“But not you?” he asked.

“…Let’s just say I got a higher body count than all of you combined and leave it at that,” she said, turning to go and get her first aid kit. Wu somehow believed her.

\-----------------------------------

In the morning, Nick and Hank went to see Dana and Sam. Dana was sleeping, but Sam was in the chair beside her bed, his head bandaged up. He looked at them and tried to smile, speaking quietly. “She’s resting up but doing well. The baby too.”

Hank smiled. “Good. Uh, we need to talk about some things though…in private.”

Sam’s smile faded and he hesitated but finally stood. He kissed Dana on the forehead and followed them out of the room, to another room nearby that was empty. “Before you ask…yes, I was aware my mother was here and that she had some awful plan for Dana and our baby. I tried to get her to leave, I did, but—”

“Aswangs are stubborn,” Nick guessed.

Sam faltered and then tried to laugh. “Oh, has Drew told you some of our stories? Really, sh-she was unstable but…”

“I’m a Grimm,” Nick said. “I have books my ancestors wrote about meeting Aswang in the Philippines more than a century ago. Or do you prefer “tik-tik”?”

He stared at nick wide eyed a moment before woging in the way Hank couldn’t see. But the rasping gasp was hard to miss as his tongue flickered nervously in his pale purple face. He changed back and stepped away. “You…”

“Yep. Now, I’m going to ask this, and I want an honest answer. Were you helping your mother?”

“No! God, no!” he said, shaking his head. “I…I loved her. I did, she was my mother. But I also saw what she was under that—a selfish woman.”

“Harsh,” Hank said.

“It’s true. She had always been somewhat like that, though it took me a long time to come to terms with it. Much of our lives were planned out by her to make her look good or please her. And if we didn’t, well…tongue lashings for Aswang are very different.”

“I can imagine,” Nick said with a grimace. “But selfish enough to do this?”

He sighed and rubbed over his face. “Fear does awful things to everyone. I knew the traditions…But I was never intending to hold to them. I’d seen the grief they caused in my cousin’s family, when my Uncle feared death enough to do it. It broke my cousin’s wife…she saw monsters and dead children everywhere and eventually she couldn’t take it any longer and…” He shook his head, disgusted. “I didn’t want to do that to Dana, or our baby. My mother was growing sick and frail and wanted me to have a child so she could extend her life. But I told her no. I moved across an ocean to protect Dana when we wanted to start our family. But she still sought us out because she was a scared, selfish woman that put herself above me and her grandchild…” he said bitterly.

“…I’m sorry. I was the one that shot her, to save Wu and Dana.”

“…Then I’m not sorry,” he sighed. “She made her choices. She could’ve died peacefully around family and loved ones who would miss her and instead she died as a true monster in my eyes.”

“…So, Dana is safe with you,” Hank clarified.

“Yes! I would never hurt her. I’ve loved Dana since the night we met, and I just want to give her a good life. And our baby.”

“You’re going to have to tell her the truth eventually,” he pointed out. “She doesn’t know you’re Aswang now, but what if your kid is?”

“…I know. I do. But I’m…scared,” he admitted, looking down. “My aswang form is pretty terrifying I know. And to know why my mother did that…even if I say that I refuse to follow those traditions, what’s she going to think of me? Of our child?”

Nick frowned sympathetically. While not the same, he knew he’d resisted telling Juliette the truth about his heritage in part because he wasn’t sure how she’d take the whole “my ancestors as close as my mother travel around the world killing people”. Admittedly she took it surprisingly well so far. “…I can speak from experience, waiting to tell someone something like this when they are more than likely going to find out isn’t a good idea. Generally, they’re angrier when they do find out that you kept it from them…”

Sam nodded softly. “You make a good point I know…”

“Plus, Wu kind of probably knows by now,” Hank added. “Our other partner is also a Grimm and has been…inducting him into the wesen world after your mom attacked him.”

Sam looked down, further shamed. “…I said some awful things to Drew…Truthfully it was jealousy, thinking Dana would’ve been safer with a normal man like him…Should I worry about him coming after me?”

“We’ll try to convince him that’s a bad idea,” Nick assured him. “But I think your best bet is to just…figure out how to be friends with him. I mean he did save your wife and child.”

“We wouldn’t have been there in time if Wu didn’t distract her,” Hank added.

“Yeah…I definitely owe him,” Sam sighed. “Tell him please, I would never hurt Dana and I’ll…I’ll tell her the truth soon. And thank you. I’ll tell him myself when he’s ready, but I understand if he’s perhaps not.”

Nick and Hank nodded and let Sam go back to Dana’s room to rest with her. Nick had no idea how their conversation might go, but he didn’t doubt Sam loved Dana deeply. He hoped that was enough for a happy-ish ending at least.

\-----------------------------------

In the afternoon Sloane was woken by her phone ringing on her bedside table. Grunting, she fumbled for it and accepted the call. “Larson…”

“Sloane, hey...What happened last night?” Nick said quickly. “We can’t find Wu, and we wanted to know how it went…”

“Mmm…just a sec.” Sloane swung out of bed and padded back through her house to the side room. “…Yep, still here.”

“What?”

“He’s here, I brought him to my house.” She took the phone away from her ear to snap a picture and send it to him. She noted it was almost 3 PM with a bit of surprise but took the picture anyway. She centered it on Wu, sleeping on the daybed, surrounded by pretty much all her books. He had a bandage on his face for the Aswang scratches, but after that she’d left him alone to read. Occasionally in the night she’d come in and check on him, explain some things, then go rest. Wu had been near constantly reading, however. He had one book still open on his chest.

Nick was surprised to say the least but relaxed slightly. “So, you showed him the books?”

“Yeah...We went over a few things last night too. That you and I are Grimms, what that means, what we do. He’s officially Kehrseite-Schlich-Kennen now, but the fact he’s able to sleep is a good sign.”

He sighed a little, but she heard the resigned tone of his voice. “Yeah…that’s good.”

“He’s not pleased with you or Hank right now though,” Sloane said matter-of-factly.

“I can imagine,” Nick sighed again.

“How about you two pick us up breakfast—or lunch? Dinner? Whatever, pick up food and we can talk a bit more here?”

Nick smiled a little. “That sounds like a plan. How about breakfast tacos? Good any time of day.”

“As many bacon and egg as you can get me. I’ll wake him up here in a bit. Also, I will need a lift to the station to get my car…”

Nick and Hank were over within the hour with a bag of breakfast tacos. By then Sloane had managed to make coffee and lure Wu out of the room. He looked beleaguered still, but clearer headed. “…Hey…”

“Hey,” Nick said, setting the bag down. “…Wu, man, we’re sorry…”

“Yeah,” Hank agreed. “We just weren’t sure how to say you’re Aswang theory was _really_ in the right direction.”

“Aside from Sam making it look like an Aswang and it really being one,” Wu said, sitting at the small dining table near the kitchen. The men grimaced a bit but nodded. “…I get it. I mean, I thought I was crazy, I don’t know how I would’ve taken this till I actually saw…” he shuddered a bit.

“How you holding up?” Hank asked sympathetically.

“…A lot better than last night. Sloane explained most things and I read others in the books…And she made me promise not to try and hunt anything on my own.”

“Yeah, please don’t,” Nick said.

“So…you see these things too?” Wu asked.

Nick nodded, pulling over the bag to start handing out food. “Whether I want to or not…generally I would not, but then we end up helping people so…”

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Sloane agreed. “We can do good, but we see a lot of bad.” They toasted one another with their taco’s in hand before starting to eat. Wu reluctantly took a chorizo and bean and started eating.

“…I’m not sure…I’m ready to be on the other side of the door,” Wu said.

“…what door?” Hank asked.

“It’s a metaphor, roll with it,” Sloane said offhandedly around a mouthful of food. She swallowed and looked at Wu. “That’s up to you. But remember, you can’t go around talking about wesen and all this. For one, it could be bad for you and people thinking you’re crazy _or_ attacking you if they think you’ll out them.”

“Right, I remember,” he sighed.

“And not just that,” she added. “If the wrong people knew Nick and I were Grimms, they’d try to kill us and the people we’re close to. We’re really trusting you with this Wu, whether you’re in or not.”

“I get it!” Wu said again, a little sharper. Then he sighed again, looking regretful but resigned. “I need some time I think…to get all this in order. Get myself in order.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation,” Nick said, “Dana and Sam are okay. And the baby. You probably saved Dana and the baby surprising Lani like that.”

Wu took a breath but nodded. “Good…good…Sam though, he’s…?”

“He’s an Aswang,” Nick confirmed. “We talked with him at the hospital. He doesn’t follow the old ways though, and he was trying to keep his mother away from Dana. He’s planning on coming clean soon to her about the whole Aswang thing.”

“He said he wants to thank you for saving them,” Hank added. “Dana and the baby. He understands if you’re unsure about him still or don’t believe him, but…I think he’s telling the truth. I’ve seen some awful wesen ritual stuff and he seemed pretty intent to keep Dana safe and make her happy.”

“Feels like I was panicking like a little kid rather than saving anyone,” Wu said.

“That’s most people’s reactions the first time,” Sloane said.

“Yeah. I…almost shot my god-daughter when she woged in front of me,” Hank said, remembering. “Nick managed to stop me in time.”

“Damn…” Wu muttered. He sighed. “I…got vacation saved up, I think I’m going to take some time off and try to get my head around all of this…”

Nick nodded. “Okay. Just don’t forget we’re here for you, okay? You’re our friend and we wanted to protect you, and we still want to help you.”

Wu smiled a tiny bit, but there was something fragile about it that worried Nick. “Thanks…I, um…I better go give my statement and figure out what I’m going to tell them as far as not coming back to the scene last night...”

“Okay…Let us know if you need anything,” Hank said, also worried.

“Right.” Wu stood, taking what was left of his taco and heading out the door.

“…Is he okay?” Nick asked.

“Time will tell,” Sloane sighed.

\------------------------------

Once We Were Gods

\----------------

“So, Wu knows now?” Monroe asked. They’d met up the next day to go over the fact that there was someone else in the police force that knew about wesen. They chose Nick’s house as he had the bigger dinner table, and Juliette made a pot of coffee for them all.

“Yep,” Sloane sighed. “There’s no forgetting or explaining away an Aswang tackling you and scratching you up. We can get away with a lot with misdirection and trauma explanations, but when it’s right up in your face and we can’t blame drugs or mass hysteria or something…It didn’t feel right letting him freak out like that.”

“You old softy,” Monroe teased.

“Watch it,” she warned, though it wasn’t as snappy as it might’ve been once. “We’re going to watch him on and off, make sure he doesn’t do something he shouldn’t. I explained why it’s best to keep it a secret but he’s not sure where he wants to go from here.”

“Can’t say I blame him,” Hank said. “I mean, when I saw my first beast—”

“Hey,” Monroe said, a little outraged. He gestured to himself and Rosalee, who looked a bit awkward at the description. “We’re right here, man.”

“Sorry,” Hank said quickly. “When I saw my first _wesen.”_

Monroe nodded but then shrugged. “Not that some wesen aren’t more bestial than others,” he admitted. Rosalee rolled her eyes a tiny but nodded too.

“I remember how messed up I was,” Hank continued. “Put a few bullet holes in my closet, couldn’t sleep without my shotgun. But once Nick explained things—and you did too,” he gestured at Monroe he nodded, “Took some getting used to but…here I am.”

“But that’s because Nick is your partner. You already trusted him,” Rosalee said.

Juliette nodded. “Yeah. If I hadn’t already been connected to Nick’s world and loved him and trusted him, I don’t know what my reaction would’ve been,” she said. Nick looked at her, a tiny bit worried.

“Yeah, but your life is better now, isn’t it?” Hank asked.

“My life is better with Nick but if I wasn’t with him, I’m…just not sure I’d want to know,” she said honestly. Nick frowned again, unsure how to take that.

“Being in the know isn’t for everyone,” Rosalee said.

“It's one thing seeing a Fuchsbau or even a Blutbad, but an Aswang?” Monroe added. “I mean, they scare even us. If that was your introduction to wesen and then you were told you're not imagining things, that could fry your brain. I mean, I know I'm repeating myself here, but it could fry your brain for good.”

“That’s what we’re worried about,” Nick said. “But he seemed to take it okay for the most part…”

“And his brain was already about to be fried seeing that thing,” Hank said. “I don’t know what might’ve happened if we hadn’t gotten him out of there. He knew what he saw.”

Rosalee and Monroe both looked worried as well, unsure how to feel about it.

“…The first wesen I saw was my school bus driver,” Sloane said. “A car at a four-way intersection ran a red light and almost hit the bus and I saw her woge from behind…Not sure exactly what she was, but the ears were hard to miss. I was scared to tell anyone because even then I knew it was not what I should be seeing. I told a friend though and…”

“And?” Rosalee asked.

“…I didn’t know she was wesen too. A Male Piora—hedgehog. She woged and we freaked out together and I was confused why she was scared of me. She ran away and wouldn’t answer when I tried to call her, then her mother stopped picking up. A couple of nights later my grandmother was killed…Realized later that she must’ve told her parents who told others there were Grimms in town…”

“Oh Sloane…” Rosalee said softly.

She shrugged, but her fingers were tapping idly at the mug in her hands in agitation. “I hadn’t told oma, thinking it was a bad thing. After oma was murdered, I tried telling the police and others about the “monsters”, no offense. I ended up in a mental hospital for a couple of weeks before Deirdre came and got me out. I remembered just…wishing someone believed me…That’s why I prefer just saying I do. Even if they convince themselves it’s not real someday, having someone not just try to tell you it wasn’t real when you were sure what you saw…I just know after weeks doubting myself, it meant a lot when Deirdre came for me and what I saw was real. I was finally able to focus on something other than what happened that night and how I could remember those things so clearly if they weren’t real.”

Rosalee sighed and nodded a bit. “Okay…I see your point there.”

“Yeah…but we can’t be telling everyone who glimpses a wesen they’re real,” he said.

“I know, I do try to avoid making it a habit, especially when it was dark or happened fast. But it was a bit more than a glimpse this time around. I’ve told others who eventually just thought I was humoring them and moved on with their lives or got therapy. Like with the Wolkeshaber—the girls who saw it last I heard believe it was a big animal that attacked them, and a man kidnapped the girl in the aftermath. But I told her I believed her and that made it less likely she was going to freak out on me at the time. Memory is a weird thing. But having Wu saying he saw an Aswang in front of everyone didn’t seem like the best thing to do to him…he might’ve been committed, which may have helped but he’d have to live with the memory and the stigma. And he works closely with us so what about the next time he sees something?”

Everyone looked at one another, agreeing but also scared what Wu would do with his knowledge.

\--------------------------

The next day they find out Wu has gone ahead and taken his vacation but didn’t tell anyone where he was going. The three detectives were worried but decide not to press the issue with him in case he needs space. But a couple of days with him gone made them all worried more and more.

“…I need to talk with Renard,” Sloane sighed, standing.

“About Wu?” Nick asked. “I’m not sure we should tell him. He might be more concerned with more people knowing.”

“Yeah…I’ll put that aside for now but there’s something else too. I want to see what he says before I tell you guys though.” She headed over to the office and knocked on the door before opening it.

Renard was at his desk reading a file but turned to give her attention. “Larson. Something wrong?”

“Maybe…” She closed the door. “I got some information the other day I’d like to discuss with you. It concerns some…relatives of yours.”

“Ah,” he said, setting file down and more attentive now. “And that information is?”

“Apparently the Royals in Austria having a bit of a freak out. Something went missing, they’re looking for it, and have been for a while now,” she said.

“…Well, I don’t know much about that I’m afraid.”

Sloane narrowed her eyes, tilting her head just slightly. “…You’re lying.” He arched his eyebrows and Sloane shrugged. “You’re a very good liar, but I don’t believe that you wouldn’t be keeping tabs on as many Royals as you could after what happened with your brother unleashing a dangerous wesen on the public here. Or at least that’s the nice version of what I can say I think,” she smiled.

Renard smiled just slightly. “Well…I appreciate trying to be nice.” He sighed, leaning back in his chair. “Alright, I do know a bit of what’s going on. It’s a someone that they’re looking for, not a something. But that’s all I really want to say for now because I’m doing my best to coordinate with others to help get them out of there. The less who know, the easier that will be.”

“Fair enough I suppose,” Sloane said slowly. “But do I need to worry about Royals or verrat coming here though?” she asked seriously. Her expression dared him to try and lie again.

“…It’s a possibility but I’m trying to avoid it,” he admitted. “If it does, I promise you, I’ll be warning you, Nick and Hank.”

Sloane thought about adding Wu but instead nodded. “Okay…as long as we’re on the same page.”

“You still don’t trust me?”

“Is that a rhetorical question?” she asked back. “I trust you as much as I can given what I know about you. You want more, change my mind like Rosalee and Monroe.”

Renard actually smiled a little again. “Fair enough,” he shot back. “If there’s nothing else though I do need to actually do work. And so do you.” He held up a file. “I’ve got one I think you three will need to handle.”

“So you do give us the weird ones,” Sloane said, taking the file.

“I give you the ones that I think need _special_ attention. And this one is very special. It involves a mummy.”

“…I’m sorry, what? I thought you said mummy. Like…a mummy mummy?” He gestured to the file and she opened it to see the photos and her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, no, that is a sarcophagus so…mummy.”

“It is indeed. Have fun.”

Sloane rolled her eyes but headed out. “We got a case, fellas.”

Nick and Hank got their computers locked and rose. “Renard gave it to you?” Nick asked.

“Yep. Also, he does try to give us the weird ones.”

“I knew it,” Hank said. “What’s it this time? Vampires? Mothman? The loch ness monster?”

“How’s your ancient Egyptian?” she smiled, handing them the file.

The gist of the case was unfortunate and sad: A security guard surprised a couple of thieves and gets knocked out after a shot went off and killed one thief, then the guard’s partner comes in and the remaining thief shot him with the original guard’s gun and killed him. At least that was the working theory as they had one guard in the hospital, one dead on the floor, and one man dressed in black also dead on the floor.

“Was he able to get a look at who attacked him?” Nick asked officer Franco who had arrived on scene.

“Sort of, I guess,” Franco said. “He said he looked like that.” Franco pointed at the sarcophagus on the table in the middle of the room. Sloane and Nick both faltered and glanced at one another. The sarcophagus’ face was shaped like that of a jackal—Anubis, the God of death. That was a red flag. “It was dark. Figured he must have been wearing a mask,” Franco said, shrugging a little. “And also, the cop said that the lid to the sarcophagus was open, but it's closed now.”

Hank was going over the thief’s body as Franco spoke and sighed. “Nothing in his pockets, no wallet. Have C.S.U. run his prints when they get here.” Franco nodded.

“Got two shell casings here. 9 mil, same as the cop's gun,” Nick said, noting the casings under a nearby desk. “Could be the dead guy or his buddy grabbed the other cop's gun, shot this cop coming through the door.”

“Worst thing that can happen... your gun gets used to shoot somebody,” Hank said, shaking his head.

“And now you see one other reason they’re not my favorite,” Sloane muttered just loud enough they could hear. She was looking at graffiti left on the wall over some brown wood cabinets facing the sarcophagus. She’d joked about knowing ancient Egyptian, but now it would come in handy. “But what did they want in here? It’s not like this is a jewel exhibit…The sarcophagus is a bit hard to just walk out with.”

“Doubt they keep any cash in here,” Nick agreed. “Maybe they broke in to steal the computers?”

“Why'd they open the sarcophagus?” Hank asked, walking over to look at it.

“Curiosity,” Nick smiled.

“Yeah. I'd be curious,” Hank agreed.

“Not me, let the dead rest…” Sloane said.

There was a sudden commotion near the door, and they turned to look when a blonde woman in a white lab coat tried to push her way in. “Oh my God, what happened?”

“Sorry. You can't come in here. Step back outside, please,” Franco said.

The blonde frowned at him and patted her coat till she pulled out a pass from her pocket. “No, I'm Professor Vera Gates. This is my lab. I need to check the sarcophagus,” she said brusquely.

Nick waved a hand at Franco. “Let her in. We were just about to take a look.”

She didn’t wait for a further invitation, ducking under the red crime scene tape and rushed over to the sarcophagus. Without touching it she walked around, examining the jackal head painted in gold and black with piercing blue eyes, the body painted almost entirely gold with stripes of black and green and white made to look like the kind of livery an ancient god would wear and his arms crossed over his chest. When she moved to open it, she paused and looked at them for help. Hank quickly grabbed hold of the top by the snout and the side and helped to push it open.

Inside was a mummy for sure—but not how they expected. Like the top, the mummy’s head was wrapped in the shape of a dog-like animal. Sloane’s eyes widened in surprise.

“Thank God it hasn't been damaged,” Professor gates sighed.

“That's a kind of strange shape for a mummy, isn't it?” Nick asked, also surprised and more than a little worried.

“We haven't started our examination yet,” she said. “It could be a deformed human or some sort of manufactured religious artifact. C.T. scan will let us know for sure. Until then, let's close it.”

Hank moved to help and grunted as they closed it. “Any idea what those painted symbols mean?”

She narrowed her eyes, annoyed at the vandalism, but read it easily enough. “"I protect the dead."”

“Mean anything to you?” Hank asked.

“It's part of an inscription found in Tutankhamun's tomb. Some people think of it as a curse.”

“What do you consider it?” Nick asked.

She looked like she was losing patience with them and sighed. “I just want my lab back. I have a lot of work to do.”

Sloane frowned. “Well, we’re kind of investigating a murder that took place here. Double homicide. I know they aren’t in a fancy box but…” Sloane gestured behind them at the two men dead on the ground.

Professor Gates flushed a bit and looked down. “I…of course, I apologize.”

“We’ll let you know when we’re done,” Nick said a little more gently. Professor gates nodded and then quickly made her way out.

“Little harsh,” Hank said, glancing at Sloane.

“I’m not going to coddle her; this one has been dead long enough he can wait. Besides, we might have bigger problems considering his head shape…”

They all looked at the sarcophagus. “Do you…think the mummy walked?” Hank asked.

Sloane shook her head but was unsure. “Doubt it…but what do you two think?”

“No idea…I really hope not though,” Nick sighed, Hank nodding. Nick pulled out his phone. “Open that back up, I should get some pictures.”

\----------------

Wu sighed, looking out over the lake. He’d opted to rent a place out in the country, away from the city, away from people and just…relax. It wasn’t easy. Every sound made him flinch, every tickle of sweat or fabric made him jump when he thought something was moving over him. He had to take the clock down and turn it off because the ticking nearly gave him a panic attack. He’d hoped the quiet would help him think this through and figure out what to do, but it was started to just make every sound _too much._

Sighing, he looked down at the pen and paper on the table in front of him. He’d drawn a picture of an Aswang without really thinking and the long, forked tongue curving around it and forward. Grunting at himself, he ripped the page off and crumpled it up, then pressed his forehead against his hands with it between them. It was real. Now what?

\-----------------

“Dead intruder is Robert Jason Taylor. 24, Canadian. Records for civil disobedience and vandalism,” Hank was telling Renard, leading him back to their little huddle of desks.

“What about the other man?” Renard asked.

“Just got confirmation from Interpol. Karl John Herman, 27. Dual Swiss-U.S. citizenship. His prints were on the gun,” Nick said.

“That means Karl Herman's our killer,” Renard said, nodding.

“Well, he is on the terrorist watch list,” Sloane said. “Wanted for arson, theft, and homicide. He targets museums, breaks in, leaves graffiti protesting the desecration of the dead. So, it fits with what happened at the scene.”

“Could explain his interest in the sarcophagus,” Renard nodded.

Nick stood, edging closer and speaking more quietly. “Campus cop said whatever attacked him looked like what was carved on the sarcophagus.” Renard’s eyes widened slightly, and he turned fully to Nick. “The mummy inside is also in the shape of an Anubis.”

Renard glanced around, maybe wishing they’d done this in his office, but then spoke quietly back. “So, you think it's possible that it's wesen, fully woged, mummified, and alive?”

“Not alive,” Sloane clarified. “That thing was _dead_. Unless you know a dog-like wesen that can live in a room sealed behind a wall for several decades without food or water and still be moving around.”

“Not off the top of my head,” he admitted.

“But we do think that Karl Herman could be wesen. Same kind as the mummy,” Nick clarified.

“That's a hell of a connection,” Renard said.

“Strong family ties?”

“Well, let's try to untie them,” he sighed. “Keep me updated.” He glanced at Sloane and then headed back to his office.

“I think we need a wesen point of view here,” Nick sighed.

“Already texting Rosalee, she’ll met us at the shop after lunch,” Sloane said, putting her phone down. He hadn’t even seen her pick it up.

Lunch came and went, and they headed over quickly to the Spice Shop. Nick had the pictures on his phone and brought them up to look over. “That is definitely not Kehrseite,” Monroe said, frowning deeply at the mummy.

“Is it even possible to mummify a wesen in full woge?” Nick asked.

“I guess so. I mean, if the wesen were kept alive in a heightened state of fear or agitation,” he said, frowning more at the thought.

“And if the right drugs were used to preserve the woge,” Rosalee added, troubled as well. “Like that hunter that wanted to preserve the Glühenvolk’s skin…”

Sloane looked at her in surprise. “Okay, A) You met Glühenvolk? And B) a hunter wanted to what now?”

She smiled happily at the memory. “Yes. A man and a woman, and she was pregnant! But this Raub-Kondor hunter was trying to kill them and preserve them in woge to skin them! Including the baby!”

“Wow…I missed out on a lot before coming here…”

“I missed a lot just being in the dark. But back to our friend under wraps; once it's mummified, it couldn't wake up, right?” Hank clarified.

“No, when you're dead, you're dead,” Rosalee said with finality. Hank looked a bit relieved at that.

“So, this is a mummified Anubis,” Nick said, asking for confirmation.

“It could be. Hence the carving on the sarcophagus,” Monroe nodded.

“Anubis are wesen?” Juliette asked, shocked by the revelation.

“I was just going to ask that,” Hank said.

Rosalee was nodding. “Lots of Egyptian gods were wesen. That's why we're depicted as animal-like creatures on the tomb walls.”

“Huh…that makes sense actually,” Sloane said. “I never really thought about it that way.”

“Yeah. Way back when, wesen were actually, well, worshiped. Tefnut, Ammit, Bast, Khepri. Total rock stars. Literally,” Monroe said, laughing a little, maybe a touch proud.

“The campus cop said he was attacked by something that looked like an Anubis, so they're still around,” Hank said.

“Well, yeah, they're not extinct, if that's what you're thinking, but it wasn't this dude. He be _dead_.”

“So is one domestic terrorist and a security guard,” Sloane sighed. “We already determined the mummy didn’t do that.”

“Yeah. Our perp is still alive, and is a cold-blooded killer with a political message,” Nick said, bring out some other pictures from his file of the pictographs painted on the wall.

“Sorry, I'm not really up on my hieroglyphs. You, uh... you know what this says?” Monroe said, tilting his head at the pictures.

“"I protect the dead,”” Nick said with a wry expression.

Rosalee took a breath. “Beati paoli.”

“Beati paoli, right,” Monroe said, looking just as on guard. He gently led her aside, away from the others, but they could still hear his hushed voice. “But you really think nowadays around here?” Rosalee looked conflicted and worried as she thought that over.

“Somebody wanna tell us what this Beati Paoli is?” Hank asked.

They hesitated but Rosalee nodded finally. “It's a Sicilian vendetta society made up of different wesen, dedicated to the protection of wesen culture.”

“…I’m sorry, I kind of had to pause at “Sicilian vendetta society”. You mean a _mafia_?” Sloane asked in disbelief.

“In some ways, yeah,” Monroe said. “It was created in the 17th century. They go after, like, museums, archeological digs, antique auction houses. They'll even go after private wesen collectors if they're trafficking in stolen wesen antiquities.”

“Growing up, every angry young wesen wanted to join their cause,” Rosalee said, maybe remembering a time when she was an angry young wesen.

“And I'm not saying I condone their methods, but if this mummy really is wesen, I have to agree, displaying it woged is totally grotesque,” he bit out.

“It's immoral. It's a sacrilege. This mummy is not only a part of our heritage. It's our ancestor,” Rosalee agreed, getting a little worked up as well.

They both breathed and calmed down, Monroe handing the photos back to Nick. “Sorry, I just... we feel kind of passionate about this.”

Sloane nodded, a little surprised. She’d never really thought about how they might view this she realized. “I can see that…”

Nick gathered up the photos and put them in the file. “Well, I guess it's time we hit the trailer. You guys wanna come?”

“Oh, yeah,” Monroe said, looking rearing to go.

Rosalee however paused him with a hand on his chest and a smile back on her lips. “Love to, but our wedding planner's coming, so this tall guy is stuck with me. Sorry.” They all smiled in understanding, waving goodbye as they headed for the door. Monroe watched them go with a bit of a hang-dog expression. “Oh, hey, it's not gonna be so bad,” Rosalee said.

“No, that's not what I was thinking. It's just... Maybe we should inform the council about what's happened,” he said, looking worried.

Rosalee shook her head slightly. “No. It's been all over the news. I'm sure they would have heard it by now. Besides, if it really is the Beati Paoli, the less we're involved, the better.”

He sighed and nodded. “I guess so. But we were gods once,” he scoffed, looking at her with a bit of wounded pride. “What happened?

\------------------------

Wu was trying to sleep in the cabin. But once again he saw the Aswang’s face as he rushed him in Dana’s room, its claws scratching at him, and the _tik tik tik_ noise echoing in his ears as it got into his face. He woke with a start, screaming. He shuddered, trying to calm down.

_Tik tik tik_

He froze, hearing the noise.

_Tik tik tik tik_

Standing, he looked wildly around the room. “No…No no no, it’s not here…”

_Tik tik_

He started breathing heaving, shuddering breaths as though he had run a mile at top spead despite standing still. He grabbed the chair in the corner of the room and raised it as a weapon, looking around.

_Tik tik tik tik_

Whirling, he looked at the window and the darkness out beyond it. He could imagin the Aswang’s face coming from the darkness for him and he raised the chair, ready to strike. Then he saw it…the branch of the tree, tapping against the window.

_Tik tik tik_

He released the breath he was holding with a shudder and slowly he lowered the chair. “Its…it’s not here…it’s not here…” he said quietly. His legs gave out and he slumped to the ground. “I…what the hell am I going to do?”

\-------------------------

They’d been at the trailer for a couple of hours, going through all the books, before Juliette piped up.

“I found something,” she said, sitting up from where she’d been almost laying down as she flipped through the book. “"Cairo, June 11, year of our lord, 1928. Five days ago, I received an urgent request from lord Herbert of the royal geographic society. Two of their Egyptians been brutally murdered at a dig near Karnak. From witness statements, I suspected the murderer was wesen. As luck would have it, I had brought my bell and Howell eyemo, which enabled me to film some of my investigation." You don't happen to have that film, do you?” She asked, looking hopefully.

“I might. There are a lot of old films in that cabinet down there,” he nodded to one near where Hank was standing.

Hank opened the cabinet, pulling out a several tin film cannisters. “Hmm. "Cult of Kali”, “Tunguska,”” he read them off, setting them down on the desk next to him.

“Does one say Cairo? Or something equally Egyptian?” Sloane said, glancing at the first tin over Nick’s shoulder curiously.

He pulled another up and paused before turning it to show them. It was a picture of Anubis, with what looked like a bow, some squiggles, a bird and a statue of a dog underneath him. “How about a hieroglyph?”

“That’ll work,” Nick said. “Now where’s that projector?”

It took a little time to get it all set up but when it was, they all sat back to watch on the screen that was included. “I thought Karate Kid was our next movie night?” Sloane said, smiling at Hank. He smiled back but they settled to watch the movie. Nick operating the hand crank for the projector and as it started, they watched as a man and whoever was using the camera entered a tomb of some sort. In a large room was another Anubis box. The man in front moved into view, setting his torch in a holder. He was tall, with dark hair and eyes and a carefully trimmed, closely cropped beard. He moved to open it. “Same type of sarcophagus that's in the university,” Nick said.

“He looks a little like you, Nick,” Hank smiled.

“Please, no full beard. Ever,” Juliette said, not approving.

“Eh, I don’t know. It kind of works,” Sloane said.

They watched him open the sarcophagus, and inside was a mummy just like the one they saw as well.

A few moments after looking the mummy over, the scene changed to the dark-haired man, prodding an Egyptian man changed to the wall with a sharp stick. The man looked like he was hurling insults at him until suddenly he woged into a wesen with a canine muzzle full of sharp teeth, and long pointed ears.

“Why’s he doing that?” Hank asked, frowning.

“He just woged,” Nick said.

“You can see that?” Juliette asked, looking at him in surprise.

“Yeah. Can't you?” he asked.

“No.”

“Me either.”

“I can,” Sloane said, nodding. “He’s another Anubis…I’m not sure why we can see them woge in footage like this, it’s something we’re still studying as far as Grimm abilities.”

Nick sighed and stopped the projector, not really enjoying watching his ancestor cajoling the wesen or wanting to see him possibly kill him. “Is there anything more in the book?”

“Yeah, there's more,” Juliette said, turning on her flashlight to read in the dark. “"After some coercion, the Anubis confirmed he was a member of the Beati Paoli."” She looked surprised and then up at them. “That's what Monroe and Rosalee were just talking about.”

“I guess they’ve been active in Egypt for a while,” Sloane said. “Makes sense with all the mummies that got taken out of there over the years…”

Juliette nodded, looking over the entry again. “"He told me that because Anubis were seen as gods by the Egyptians, pharaohs in the old kingdom believed that if they were buried with a mummified Anubis, they were assured of becoming gods themselves. They tortured to death thousands of slaves in search of Anubis, but only a few were ever successfully mummified in full woge." That's terrible,” she said in disgust.

“No wonder they're pissed about displaying their ancestors,” Hank said.

“Yeah…You’d think torturing Gods would be frowned upon though…” Sloane said.

“I guess anything to become a god,” Hank said.

“A little more. “"The Anubis further confessed that it was his intention to steal the mummy and give it a ceremonial burial. After assuring him I would do that, I…dispatched him to his ancestors.”” She finished, turning off the flashlight with a disapproving huff.

“Yeah, that sounds about right,” Sloane said.

“Well, at least we now know Karl Herman wasn't there to redecorate the walls... he was there to steal the mummy,” Nick said, turning on the lights.

“Well, if he tried once, he'll try again,” Hank said, standing and grabbing his jacket.

“We better warn Professor Gates. I don’t think she can take a live Anubis on,” she sighed.

\--------------

Professor Gates was analyzing the CT scan and x-rays done on the mummy when they tracked her down at the university. She seemed even more interested than she was before in the body and Sloane glanced the screen with a frown. She was no doctor or scientist, but from what she saw it was kind of obvious the animal head was not just some molded headpiece. _That can’t be good…_

“Professor Gates, sorry to disturb you,” Nick said. “We just need a couple of minutes.”

“Not now,” she said, not looking happy at being disturbed. “Now check out the claw-like hands. There's no evidence of fabrication. If this mummy has been faked, I have no idea how they did it.”

The detectives glanced at one another uneasily and Nick tried again more firmly. “Professor, we need to talk. Now.”

Professor Gates looked at them again and seemed to realize they were serious and not interns she could order around. She nodded and turned away, leading them to the other side of the room. “What is it?”

“We have reason to believe that the people involved in the break-in will try again,” Hank said. “We…suggest you move the sarcophagus to a more secure location.”

“Soon,” Sloane added.

“There is no more secure location. The entire building is secure,” she said.

“Well, it wasn't the other night,” Nick pointed out.

“Well, it is now,” she said more impatiently. “And do you have any idea who this man is?”

“Yes, we have. It appears their agenda is political,” hank said.

“He feels this is desecration of the dead,” Sloane clarified. “Also, not too keen on having them taken from their home.”

“Well, I don't care what their agenda is. This is science. I won't be scared into not doing my research,” she said indignantly.

“This man is not your normal radical. He's already killed once, and I don't think he's gonna give a damn about your science,” Nick said, trying to reason with her.

“I've already hired additional security. My lab is guarded both day and night. Now, why don't you do your job and catch this guy and let me do mine? I think this is one of the most important discoveries of the century, and I will not be intimidated by some activist thug. Excuse me,” she brushed roughly past them and Sloane glared after her. She did not like this woman, and she definitely did not want someone focusing on “scientific discoveries” knowing about wesen. That would end badly she was sure.

“I think you did a pretty good job there,” Hank said.

Nicks phone rang and he rolled his eyes at Hank as he pulled it out. “Oh, yeah. I convinced the hell out of her. Burkhardt,” he said to the phone. He was listening to whoever was on the other side, so they only got half the conversation, but it soon pulled their attention. “What's up?...Don't tell me he's back,” Nick sighed. “…Are you and Rosalee okay?” Sloane looked at him, alert now. She focused her hearing on the phone and heard Monroe’s voice.

“He says he just got back into town and he wants to talk to you…”

“Put him on the phone,” Nick sighed. He caught Sloane looking at him somewhat concerned. _Alexander. Wesen council,_ he mouthed at her. Her eyebrows shot up. The Pflichttreue who came to dispose of Daniel Keary during the Grausen issue?

“Nick, how are you?” a smooth voice said over the line.

“What do you want?” Nick said impatiently.

“I'd rather not do this on the phone. If you're nervous about us meeting, you pick the place,” he said.

Nick looked annoyed but finally sighed. “Just stay there.”

“All right. Oh, but both of you please. I’d like to speak to both Grimm,” he replied, then hanged up.

Nick growled softly at the phone but put it back in his pocket.

“What's that about?” Hank asked, paying more attention now.

“Wesen council. Alexander's back,” Nick sighed, turning to head out the door with them.

“The cat guy?”

Sloane snorted a soft laugh but nodded. “Yeah. What’s he doing here?”

“No idea. But he wants to talk to you and me.” Nick looked at Hank. “I don’t know what he’d do if a Keirsheite came. You mind waiting in the car?”

Hank held up his hands. “No, yeah, I get it. Safer the less people know about me. I’ll let you two deal with him.”

\--------------------

Sloane tried not to get too agitated as they drove to Monroe and Rosalee’s but both she and Nick were worried. Getting there, they nearly bolted out of the car and up to the front door, where Monroe looked relieved to let them in. “Glad you're here.”

“Are you okay?” Nick asked. Sloane’s eyes went immediately to the man in the suit, with his dark hair and pale features. He looked at her back and seemed curious.

“Yeah…” Monroe sighed. Rosalee was hanging back in the living room, trying to stay calm.

“Thank you for coming,” Alexander said smoothly.

“I wish I could say the same,” Nick said, putting his hands in his pockets but still on guard. “How long have you been here?”

“Oh, a couple hours,” Alexander said, much more casual. “I need your help.”

“Really? You’re asking us for help?” Sloane said, folding her arms.

“I didn't know you asked Grimms for help,” Nick added.

“Depends on the circumstances…and the Grimm.” He looked between them as if considering which one would be best.

“Well, what is it you think that we can do for you?” Nick asked.

“The Beati Paoli. You've heard of them?”

“We have,” Sloane said.

“Are you aware that the man you're after is a member?” he asked, pacing slightly but appearing relaxed.

“Karl Herman,” Nick stated. “Look, I don't care what group he belongs to. He's a murderer.”

Alexander nodded, understanding and apparently glad they were all up to speed. “We don't condone what the Beati Paoli does, but we also don't usually get in their way. We also feel strongly that wesen remains should not be put on display. It's disrespectful and dangerous to the wesen community. But by killing the guard, he's gone too far. The council wants him stopped.”

Monroe and Rosalee looked at one another, a little antsy at discussing this with a member of the council who was, to put it nicely, the one they sent to enforce the council’s decisions. Nick frowned as well stepping forward. “If you came here to kill him, I'm just gonna tell you right now, I'm not gonna let that happen.”

Alexander didn’t even flinch. “We know. That's why the council would prefer you to stop him. Which is why I'm going to tell you what I know. Karl Herman will make another attempt.”

“And you know this how?” Sloane asked dubiously.

“Because he called the council and asked for help in stealing it tonight.”

Sloane and Nick glanced at one another then back to him. “What did you tell him?” Nick asked.

“That he's violated council law by killing the Kehrseite, which is a capital crime,” he said with an amazing amount of superiority.

Nick stared at him, then glared. “You want us to kill him.”

“You’re Grimms. That's what you do,” he said with a hint of bitterness as he walked around them.

“I'm not going to execute him for the council,” Nick said.

Alexander eyed him and then looked to Sloane. “And you?”

Sloane didn’t answer immediately, and Nick looked at her. “Sloane?”

“…I’m not sure I like being a hitman for the wesen council either,” she said slowly.

“But you had no qualms killing wesen in the past,” he said, narrowing his eyes. “I believe, if you are indeed Sloane Larson, you had quite the reputation as a hunter. Willing to do almost anything to get your target. Expert at extracting information. Marksman. Took down wesen twice your weight and size as a young girl. Taking out an entire hive of Nensho Toge on your own just a few years ago. This would likely not be hard for you.”

Sloane frowned more, eyeing him with suspicion. Nick and the others glanced at one another, having forgotten that Sloane really had been very active in the hunts before her time with them. That she had a reputation even “…First of all, your pronunciation is awful,” she said with a straight face. Nick had to hide a small smile at Alexander’s look of surprise he let slip. “Secondly, I’m glad my reputation precedes me, but that doesn’t mean I take requests.”

“But you have no qualms about killing, do you?”

“If the situation calls for it.”

“I didn’t think you were so discerning before…” he said, a touch snide.

Sloane narrowed her eyes, knowing he was trying to get a rise out of her, but she was ready to stand toe to toe with him. “Considering I’ve never killed a child, I don’t think I’ll take that criticism from the council’s errand boy,” she shot back.

He glared and there was a touch bright green leaking into his eyes. “No children, just any wesen that stepped into your path. It’s a wonder you haven’t killed your so-called friends yet, though perhaps it’s just a matter of time before your nature comes out as a murderer.”

Sloane glared hard enough they had a feeling blows would start flying soon, so Nick grabbed her around the shoulders and Monroe quickly got between her and Alexander. “Okay, there is no murder in our house please! We get the picture, so please stop.”

Alexander sighed softly, his eyes going back to brown as he calmed down. “He needs to be dealt with soon. I believe he's going to ask Professor Gates for her help, whether or not she's willing to give it.” He looked at his watch and frowned more. “Yes, you don't have much time. Neither do I. I have a plane to catch.”

“What, not even going to stick around?” Sloane asked.

“I’m a busy man,” he said, turning for the door. “Good luck.” He left and closed the door behind him.

“…Is it me, or was that weird?” Monroe asked, looking between them and the door.

“The council asking Grimms to kill a wesen? Yeah, that was a little unnerving,” Rosalee said testily.

“It does seem kind of the opposite of what I would expect…” Sloane said. “But also, he wanted to fight me. I know he did.”

“And you would do it,” Nick said, though he didn’t sound as judging as she’d expected.

“I would and I would win.”

“I believe it. Maybe the council likes how it turned out the last time they sent Alexander here, you know, when you beat the crap out of the guy,” Monroe said with a slight grin.

Nick and Sloane smiled a bit. “Maybe…” He pulled out his cell phone. “I’m going to call Professor Gates, try and warn her. If Alexander is right, she might be in danger.”

Sloane nodded, and then they all turned when the door opened again and Hank stepped in. “I saw Alexander leave. Everything okay?”

“Eh…weird. He wants us to _take care_ of Karl Herman,” Sloane said.

“Whoa, seriously?”

“Yeah. He also said that Karl Herman's gonna try again tonight, and he's gonna use Professor Gates to do it.”

“And I can’t get ahold of her,” Nick added, looking at his phone in frustration. He looked at Hank hopefully. “Did you get the plates off Alexander's car?”

He nodded. “Yeah, he drove away in a rental. Called in an APB. Watch, don't engage. Just in case we need to know where he is.”

“I’m not sure he just showed up tonight,” Nick said.

“I was thinking that too. If Herman called him with plans to try again tonight after the last time, it’s convenient he arrived so soon,” Sloane said.

Hank nodded, thinking that over. “I'll check Alexander's rental. See when he picked it up.”

“And we should check on Professor Gates,” Sloane said, the other two nodding.

“Guys, what happens to this mummy is important to us,” Rosalee said quickly, looking concerned.

“We know,” Sloane said.

“Yeah, we'll let you know. But we need to get to Professor Gates' house,” Nick said.

\------------------------

Two things didn’t surprise Sloane. One, Professor Gates was not at her house when they went to check. So, Herman had already gotten to her.

Two, Alexander lied. Hank got the confirmation call while they were checking on the house that Alexander had picked up his rental car three days ago, not one, and hadn’t returned it yet.

Nick saying he was ready to take care of Herman was only somewhat surprising, but Sloane agreed and was ready to seriously take him out.

They headed immediately to the university campus. A guard there let them in and was confused as he said Professor Gates had called and said the police had apprehended the suspected. Hank had him stay to watch the front as they quickly headed to the lab. Hank got a call that Alexander’s car was tracked to the university itself, so he wasn’t far. Nick called Monroe and Rosalee for back up to be safe.

When they got the lab, they heard a snarl and a woman cry out “Oh my god!” Nick drew his gun and Sloane grabbed her knife as they entered the room. Karl, woged into an Anubis, was crowding Professor Gates against the back wall and looking ready to tear her throat out.

“Karl, stop!” Nick yelled. Karl looked back at them, snarled again and threw the professor across the room where she smacked into a cart and crumpled to the ground. Then he rushed for Nick. Sloane moved to try and pull him back, but Nick met him head on, deflecting his attack and getting around him. Karl elbowed him a couple of times in the stomach and face, but Nick took them and then managed to flip him over onto the ground hard. He got up and tried to get Nick with his claws, but Nick evaded him and got in several good hits before upper cutting him and sending him sprawling.

“…Damn…good form,” Sloane said. Nick smiled a bit, panting. Both she and Hank moved into the room, Hank training his gun on him and Sloane watching him readily.

“We’re done,” Nick said.

Karl dewoged, panting and looking defiant but as though he knew he wouldn’t win. “It’s not done…” He turned his gaze to the sarcophagus, lingering with a sad, resigned look. “Not until it’s done right…”

Nick had a flash of sympathy but turned to go alert security when they heard the sirens pulling up. Hank handcuffed Herman and Sloane checked on Professor Gates. She was alive and starting to come around but had a nasty bump on her head. She got her on her feet slowly, helping her to move out of the building. Hank loaded Herman into a squad car while Sloane got an ice pack from an EMT for the professor.

“How long was I out?” she asked groggily.

“Just a couple of minutes, not that long. I’d still take it easy,” she advised.

“I don't understand... that man, he…he changed, and it looked exactly like the Anubis,” she said.

Sloane didn’t miss a beat since this was not a case of telling the truth—she had an immediate out. “You took a pretty bad bump to the head. The mind can play tricks on you. Trust me, I’ve thought I’ve seen all kinds of weird things on this job, especially when I’m tired and stressed.”

She nodded slowly, frowning “I couldn't have seen what I thought I saw….”

“Exactly. What you've been through is very stressful. You feel up to making a statement?” Sloane motioned another officer to come over and lead the professor away.

“What happened to being open about seeing things?” Nick asked, having watched her. Hank walked over to them as well.

“I said _sometimes_ it’s called for. Her? Absolutely not. Scientists are awful at being Kennen if they’re not watched like a hawk or raised in it. They always want to experiment and dissect and figure things out and then _share_ it with the world. Absolutely awful and selfish of them.”

Nick smiled and nodded. “Probably for the best…”

“And what about Alexander,” Hank asked. “Do we believe he came here to have you stop this guy?”

“Nope,” Nick said, turning to head back inside. Sloane and Hank followed quickly. Sure enough, in the lab the mummy was missing. Nick pulled out his phone, knowing he couldn’t have gotten far, and dialed Monroe. “Hey, you guys have eyes on Alexander?”

“Yep, he just got to his car in the parking lot,” Monroe said. “We’re looking right at him.”

“And the Anubis?”

“Loading it into the car,” Rosalee said. “What do you want us to do?”

Nick took a breath, quickly thinking but speaking again. “Nothing. Just sit tight for now.” Nick looked at Sloane, who nodded and followed him out quickly. They saw Alexander’s car starting to pull out and Nick ran and got in front of it with a determined look on his face. Alexander sighed, looking put out but stopped the car. He watched as Nick went around the side and opened the door, climbing in. Sloane came over to the other side and tapped on his glass without him noticing, finally eliciting a small jump from the council member. He rolled down the window, looking between them.

“You're a thief,” Nick accused.

Alexander just sighed. “Among other things.”

“You lied to me. To us,” he amended.

“You did what we needed you to do.”

“Provide a distraction to give you enough time to get the Anubis out?” Sloane clarified. “By the way, Herman’s alive, he came surprisingly easily.”

“Well, you got your murderer then. Even trade,” Alexander said breezily.

“You should have just told us what you wanted in the first place,” Nick said with a glower.

“You might not have agreed.”

“I still haven't,” he pointed out. “You agree to anything Sloane?”

“No, I didn’t agree to anything,” she said.

Alexander looked like his patience was wearing thin and he glared at both of them despite his calm nature. “I don't expect you to understand why this is so important to us, but I can't let you stop me this time.”

Nick looked at him and then at Sloane. Both of them remembered Alexander did actually walk away when it came to the Grausner and Daniel Keary. Sloane still eyed him with a bit of annoyance but finally straightened from bending over the window and sheathed her knife. She gestured to Monroe and Rosalee that they’d be heading out.

“We're not going to,” Nick said. Alexander looked between them, somewhat surprised. “This time.”

And so, in the wee hours of the morning, in a secluded clearing in the woods, they built a pyre of branches and sticks and logs. Monroe knew how to build a pretty good fire from survivalist training, and they all pitched in to get it ready. Alexander brought the mummy from his car and laid it over the pile of brush. And then the pyre was lit by the three wesen present. Nick, Hank and Sloane stood a bit more off to the side as it went up, the bandages slowly browning and blackening as they were consumed. Then the fire began to eat a the leathery, desiccated remains below and turn them to ash to mix with the brush. Alexander, Monroe and Rosalee all woged as if sending him off in company of his fellows rather than watched by strangers.

“This is really kind of touching,” Hank said, though he sounded more concerned than anything. “Y’know…aside from the part where we helped them steal a 3000-year-old mummy and burn it.”

Nick smiled and shrugged a bit. “Not like we do it every day.”

“Not the weirdest funeral I’ve been to either, if we call it that. Although I want to be sent off similarly,” Sloane said. Both men looked at her, not sure if she was joking. “No, yeah. I want a Viking funeral. When I die, put me in a boat with stuff you want me to take to the afterlife with me, push me out into a big body of water, and then set me on fire. I don’t want to decompose in a box somewhere.”

“Seriously?” Hank asked.

Sloane shrugged a little. “Well…the part about giving me stuff is new. I kind of figured I’d probably die on a hunt alone so…Nice to think someone might send me off and…miss me?” she added quietly, blushing now. What was wrong with her? Was seeing the three wesen work so hard to honor a dead man they never knew affecting her that much. “Never mind, um, just whatever works.”

Nick and Hank glanced at one another before going to either side of her and putting their arms around her. “We’d definitely miss you,” Nick said.

“But we’re not planning on letting you go any time soon,” Hank added. Sloane smiled just slightly and for once didn’t snark about them being saps.

\-------------------------

The Show Must Go On

\-------------------------

A couple of days passed relatively quietly after their mummy caper. Karl Herman confessed and stated he regretted that the guard and his friend were killed, but that he still believed that putting dead people on display was sacrilege, especially when stealing them from the country they were interred in. He didn’t woge again, blanketing the statement as all dead. He had a point really, but it wasn’t going to save him. He’d be as much a martyr for his cause as his friend.

Wu returned after a week away and Sloane was the first to spot him walking into the precinct, nodding to him subtly for Hank and Nick to see. Nick took a breath and walked over. “Wu, hey…How you doing?”

Wu smiled, seeming oddly chipper for him. “I’m fine. Yeah, just needed a little time off after everything. Ready to get back to things.”

Nick blinked but nodded slowly. “Well, that’s great. Um, so about the whole thing with…Dana and the, um…”

“Dana’s fine, I talked to her and she and Sam are doing good. She said he told her some big family secret and it was kind of strained, but she still loves him. Hopefully that all works out.”

Nick blinked again, frowning. “Uh…well, I’m guessing the secret was his…heritage?”

“Wouldn’t know, she didn’t want to go into it, I didn’t ask,” Wu said brusquely.

“…So, did you want to talk anymore about the whole…Aswang thing?”

“Aswang thing? Uh, no, no, I’m good,” he said quickly. “We’re just going to…not talk about that and never talk about it again.”

“…You sure?” Nick asked slowly.

“Yeah. I peaked inside the door and that’s enough for me. Probably never going to come up again, so why bother?” He seemed much firmer and Nick held up his hands quickly.

“Okay, okay. That’s fine,” Nick said.

“Good. Now…I gotta get back to work.” He headed over to join the other police officers and Sloane and Hank walked over.

“So, how is he?” Hank asked.

“He’s…decided to just say it’s a one-time thing and…not talk about it ever again.”

Hank was surprised and looked where Wu was, smiling and laughing with the guys. “Well…I guess if that’s what he wants…”

“Denial…not the reaction I expected but…I guess it’s one of the better extremes…” Sloane sighed.

“Just hope it doesn’t make him snap,” Hank said.

“Well he knows we’re here if he needs us,” Nick said.

\---------------------

Sloane got a text near the end of the day, Rosalee asking to meet her at the shop. It didn’t sound like an emergency, so she headed over when she was free. “Rosalee?”

“Hey, come on in!” Rosalee climbed down from her ladder, smiling brightly.

Sloane smiled back. “Hey. Did you need help with something?”

“No no, I just, um…There’s something I wanted to ask you.”

“…That you couldn’t over the phone?” Sloane asked, a little teasing and a little concerned.

“Yes. Um…” She hesitated, looking at Sloane with anxiety and nerves before seeming deflate slightly. “When’s your birthday?”

Sloane tilted her head a little. “My birthday?”

“Y-yeah? I never asked before and I try to keep track of things like that. Mine’s September 18.”

Sloane had a feeling that was not what she was going to ask but huffed out a breath as she thought. “Uh…”

“…Do you not remember?” Rosalee asked, a little concerned.

“Not exactly, I just had a few fake ones for different covers so I kind of gotta make sure I’m not getting mixed up. But my real birthday is March 26.”

“…Did you say March 26?” she asked, not sure she heard right.

“Yep. March 26, 1985.”

“…Sloane… …that’s just like seven days from now!”

Sloane was a bit surprised by the shock and almost outrage. “Yeah?”

“What do you mean “yeah”?!”

“Rosalee, calm down.”

“I, but…you also came to Portland about this time of year…It’s your anniversary and your birthday…” she said, pacing a little now as she thought. “You came here practically on your birthday and we had no idea…”

“Anniversary? Well…I guess so, yeah. God, it really has been a year…” she said, surprised. “But Rosalee, it’s not a big deal. I haven’t really celebrated my birthday since I was a kid. Last time…well, Deirdre gave me my car on my 18th I guess.”

“That’s…nice…” she said, a little surprised. From what little she knew; Sloane’s mentor didn’t seem the type.

“Yeah, it was a parting gift. Got home, she left me some of the books in a chest and keys to a new car and was gone. Her note was pretty sweet for her, told me it was time we parted and to not get killed.”

“…That’s not as nice.” She shook her head. “Sloane, I just…birthdays were a big deal in my family, we always celebrated with a party...”

“…Not really much point for me. I was usually moving around, no real friends to invite over. Most of the time I was alone if Dierdre was out. I usually just treated myself to something and called it good.”

“…Can I throw you a party?”

“Rosalee—” she sighed, already feeling exhausted.

“Please. You’re my friend, I want to celebrate you,” she said almost desperately.

Sloane closed her mouth and stared at her. Why did Rosalee know just what to say to get to her? Why did that feel so _good_ to hear someone say that? “…fine, but nothing crazy, okay?”

Rosalee smiled. “Really? Because I was thinking a princess theme. Lots of pink and glitter and I’d get you a tiara and a big poufy dress and maybe a bouncy castle—”

“Oh my God, no,” Sloane laughed. “I trust you not to do that to me, so keep thinking. Just something simple. This is all on you since I’m good without a party, so don’t go overboard.”

“Got it. Ugh, but I don’t know what to get you for a present!”

“The party can be my present, and no one else needs to get me one, _don’t go overboard,_ ” she said again. “Really.”

“Okay, okay,” she sighed, then suddenly hugged her. “I wanna make it nice though.”

“…Thanks,” Sloane said honestly. “But that’s not why you asked me over.”

Rosalee blushed and then laughed. “Ugh, that obvious?”

“A bit…What’s wrong?”

“Nothing is wrong, I just…” She sighed. “I’m a bit too nervous and now I’m distracted. I’ll ask later, okay?”

Sloane frowned but then nodded. “Okay…So, um…is there anything else I can do?”

“Well, some help closing up would be nice?”

Sloane just nodded, going to grab the broom to sweep up.

\-------------------------

Monroe huffed out a breath as he waited. He’d thought about doing this over a nice dinner, but if they did then they’d have to invite Juliette as well and she would be a bit left out…So they opted to get their respective best friends alone.

At the knock on the door, Monroe quickly got up to open it. “Nick, hey. Traffic okay?”

Nick smiled, used to Monroe’s nervous chatter. He stepped in, at ease in the Blutbad’s home and the blutbad equally fine. “Not too bad. Everything okay? Your text was a little vague.”

“No, yeah, I’m fine. I just, um…Had something to ask you and I wanted to do it in person.”

“Okay…”

Monroe rubbed his hands together a little nervously but smiled. “I want to thank you for changing my life, because if it hadn't been for you, I never would have met Rosalee, and for that, I am truly grateful.”

Nick smiled warmly. “You don’t have to thank me for that, Monroe…”

“I do, really. So, because you are the reason in some ways I’m getting married... Will you pay for the wedding?” Nick barked a laugh and rolled his eyes and Monroe grinned. “Sorry, just... I was kidding. Um, but seriously, I want you to be my best man. No pressure, you don't have to answer right away,” he added quickly.

Nick was surprised by that, sobering a little but still smiling. “Really, for sure?”

Monroe smiled back. “Well, dude, you brought us together. I mean, you are kind of the responsible party here, I wasn’t joking about that. And you are also one of my best friends maybe ever.”

Nick smiled widely, honestly touched. Moving around with Marie as a kid teen he’d had trouble really connecting and making friends. Connecting with Hank had been easy once they settled into being partners and not beat cops. Connecting with Monroe, despite their many differences, had been easy once they stopped thinking so much on the Grimm and Blutbad thing. Really, he was one of Nicks very best friends and being asked to be his best man felt like a huge honor when he must have wesen friends he could’ve chosen. “Then I'd be honored,” he said honestly.

Monroe smiled. “Really? You’re sure?”

“Of course!”

Monroe smiled and opened his arms, moving in to hug him. Nick smiled and hugged him back without hesitation, and it was nice to get some good news for once.

\------------------

Monroe perked up when he heard Rosalee’s car pull up. He knew it was a little bit like a dog getting excited when someone gets home, but it was hard not to be excited when he knew she’d be through the door in a moment. He stood, going to the door to meet her as she unlocked it and walked in. “Good afternoon,” he said, intentionally a little flowery.

Rosalee smiled and let the door fall shut behind her. “Good afternoon.” She leaned up and gave him a kiss, which made him smile more.

Pulling back, he put an arm around her. “So, I asked Nick and he is officially my best man,” he grinned.

“That’s great! I mean, I figured he’d say yes, but it’s great.”

“How’d it go with Sloane?”

“Ah…”

“Uh oh, what happened?” he asked, frowning with worry.

“Nothing bad, exactly. I just…chickened out,” she sighed, going to set her purse down on the table.

“Chickened out? Why?” he asked, following her with concern.

“I don’t know, exactly,” she said in frustration. “I just…I was about to ask, and I remembered how she is sometimes, and I was scared she’d say no…and it’d be a thing between us, after how far we’ve come…”

Monroe gave her a sympathetic look and walked over to take her hand. “She’s gotten a lot better as far as social stuff…I don’t think she’d say no.”

“Yeah, but it spooked me so much I asked when her birthday was instead!” she laughed. “And get this, it’s the 26.”

“…Of this month?” Monroe asked in surprise. “That’s just a week away!”

“I know! So, um…I’m going to throw her a party.”

His eyebrows ticked up higher and he smiled in amusement. “Are you now?”

“Yes. Nothing big, she doesn’t want big, but…she hasn’t really celebrated her birthday for a long while…And it’s also an anniversary party because she’s been with us for a year now.”

Monroe smiled because he agreed. As much trouble as Sloane was this time last year, she was now kind of an integral part of their lives. “Sounds like fun, I’ll help however I can. But then you need to ask her.”

Rosalee sighed but smiled and kissed him again. “I will.”

\------------------

Sloane, Nick and Hank were called in early the next morning for a double homicide. Wu was there and brought them in, but he was very standoffish to the whole thing and didn’t make any snarky remarks or talk to them more than he needed. The detectives shared worried looks but knew that bringing it up might cause more problems. And they had two dead girls to try and find justice for so that had to be their focus.

“Their neighbor Bob Gumer found them about an hour ago as he walked past with his dog,” Wu said. The two girls were lying close to one another on the floor of their little house in pools of blood running over the Persian style rug in the center. They were in their mid-twenties and fairly pretty, but now they just stared unblinkingly at the walls and door. “Noticed their door was wide open, didn't really pay attention until his dog ran in. Upon seeing the victims, Mr. Gumer lost his lunch over in that corner,” he pointed with his pen, and the detectives grimaced, “then called 911.”

“Any forced entry?” Hank asked.

“Not that we could find. Rest of the house is intact. That's Dolores Kulikowsky. That's Monica Duncan. Roommates for about two years, according to Mr. Gumer,” Wu said, still very matter-of-fact.

“What about the car in the driveway?” Nick asked. Sloane noticed a purse on the floor and knelt with her gloves on to poke around in it.

“Registered owner is Dolores. It's locked, so we haven't opened it up yet.”

Nick nodded to him. “Open it up.” Wu nodded back and turned to go do it without another word.

“I got some photos,” Sloane said, pulling a roll of photo booth photos. Monica and Delores looked happy in them, giving funny faces and poses. She looked at the bodies and then to the pictures. “I think they must be from not long before they were killed, they’re wearing the same shirts.”

Hank was looking over the bodies, grunting and shaking his head. From the tears in their clothes, it looks like they were cut and stabbed multiple times. “Pretty brutal…”

Nick was going over the jackets on the couch and pulled out a slip of paper. “I got a ticket stub here, dated yesterday.”

“From where?” Hank asked, still looking them over.

“Carnival Metamorphosia,” Nick pronounced slowly, frowning. Sloane stood to go look at it. It looked like it was trying to emulate an old-timey carnival with it’s 20 style fonts and red and white stripes around the border.

“Never heard of it,” Hank said, looking up in confusion.

“Says it's in Sellwood River Park.”

Sloane picked up the other jacket, going through the pockets. “I don’t have another one here…”

Hank on a hunch went through the jeans pockets of the girls and then pulled a second ticket. “Well, I do,” he sighed. “What do you want to bet this is where they were before they were killed?”

“I’d rather bet where we’ll be heading once we’re done here,” Sloane said.

Sure enough, once they’d investigated the house as much s they could and the girls were taken to the ME’s office, they headed for Sellwood River Park. A huge carnival was set up there, with rides including the kind that drop you from high heights strapped in a ring around the center, a Ferris wheel, carousel and more. Despite the modern rides, there was an air of nostalgia for a long past time as well in the old-style posters and game booths and tents set up. A man dressed like an old-fashioned carnival barker was taking tickets at the front.

“Tickets, tickets, let me see those tickets. No tickets, no fun,” he said, speaking like a man from the 1920s radio in the staccato rhythm. “Tickets, tickets, let me see those tickets. No tickets, no fun. No show like it, it's the only one. Tickets, tickets, let me see your tickets.” The detectives moved around him on either side, and he blinked but then turned. “Hey there, boys, missy, I need those tickets.” They turned and Sloane opened her jacket to show her badge on her belt while Hanks’ hung around his neck and Nick’s was in his jacket. He blanched slightly but then smiled. “Those will do, go right on in.”

“Just a sec,” Sloane said, pulling the photobooth photos from her jacket. “Do you remember these girls coming through yesterday.”

He glanced at the pictures, but then gave her a withering look and dropped the carni-accent for a normal voice. “Do you have any idea how many people come through here in a day?”

Sloane shrugged, tucking them away. “Worth a shot.”

“Who’s in charge here?” Nick asked.

“That would be Mr. Hedig,” the barker sighed. “He’s in the last tent down the midway. Ah, but he’s getting ready for a show so he might not be able to talk!” he added quickly.

“We’ll just have to hurry and get good seats then,” Sloane said, following the guys down the midway. The headed for a large striped tent at the end that appeared to be used for shows and attractions. They could hear a deep, booming voice inside, giving a well-rehearsed, mysterious speech.

“A warning, my friends. What you're about to see will live in your fear for years, for this is no nightmare, and truth truly is stranger than fiction.” They walked in as he was speaking to see a man in a steam-punk ringmaster’s outfit speaking into the mic. He cracked a whip and a new light came on, showing a dark-haired man with large muscles in a leather jerkin and pants standing imposingly on stage. Flame tattoos ran up his arms to his biceps. “Behold Damien, the last of the dragons on God's green earth. His ferocious nature proves that we are lucky that they did not devour us all.” The whip cracked again, and Damien turned around. When he turned back, his body was covered in green scales and horns sprouted from his head. From a lizard like face, he opened his fanged mouth and breathed a sweep of fire. The crowd gasped in shock and a moment of rear and then cheered with delight. Sloane looked at Nick, who was as shocked as she was, and then then looked back as he changed to his human form and turned away.

“Witness Ivan,” Hedig went on, the spotlight coming on over a huge, bald man with even bigger muscles dressed like an old-time strong man. “Vile Ivan, who crushes skulls and breaks bones with his bare hands.” He turned away and when he turned back his features were like that of a monster. He took two plaster sculls and crushed them into dust like nothing, delighting the audience.

“Are you seeing this?” Nick asked quietly, though he knew the answer.

“Oh, yeah,” Hank said, looking a bit disapproving at it all.

“The beautiful Genevieve,” Hedig said more sweetly, casting the light on a beautiful woman in a satiny aqua and purple and gold dress like you’d see on a show girl. She swayed with a sultry look at the audience, framing her face with her hands. “Who proves that beauty is but skin deep and that a beast resides within us all.” The whip cracked and she turned away, but with an animalistic snarl turned back as a fuchsbau. The crowd reeled with a gasp but then cheered again, the woman turning away and changing back.

“Is this some kind of wesen carnival?” Hank asked, looking at them all in confusion as they continued woging and doing tricks to shock the audience.

“Looks like,” Nick said, frowning more.

“Can they do this? Like, in front of people?”

“They’re not supposed to,” Sloane said, angry and disapproving.

“No one's taking this as real,” Nick whispered. “They all think it's a trick.”

“And it will stay that way,” she said. “This many people finding out is going to cause a riot if we aren’t careful…

“Now, every so often, something appears that is so horrible, so vicious, it cannot be tamed,” Hedig said. As he spoke, four men came on stage to a large rectangular shape on the far stage left hidden by a black curtain draped around it. “For this beast is the demented turmoil of man himself, hidden from view until it is too late.” The men pulled the curtain off and away, showing a dark-haired man inside dressed in a white linen shirt and dark pants and boots. He looked a little spooked, like he was unsure where he was for a moment or what to do. “Do not be fooled by the way he looks now. Show us. Show us what you are!” He cracked the whip. The man groaned and looked almost sick to his stomach. “Show us.” He cracked the whip again and the man just looked sicker, turning away. “I command you to show us!”

Another crack of the whip and the man whirled—now a Blutbad. The extra hair, the long teeth, the clawed hands and blood red eyes were hard to miss in the spotlight on him. Sloane tensed shook a little, trying to keep from thinking about the blutbad who killed her grandmother as he snarled and bared his fangs. Nick glanced at her and subtly patted her back. She glanced at him and tried to relax but didn’t say anything.

“Back! Stay back!” Hedig said, cracking his whip at the blutbad. The blutbad growled low and then bent the bars of the cage. The audience began to scream as he stepped through the opening he made and jumped down the steps. The audience screamed louder as he snarled at them, looking ready to spring. Sloane’s hand went up to her knife on instinct, but Nick squeezed her shoulder again to keep her from rushing in. “I said Back!” Hedig pulled out a gun from his waist band and aimed, firing one shot as the blutbad lunged and with a yelp he was on the ground. The audience gasped, still clamoring to see. The ringmaster stepped over, pressing to fingers lightly his neck. “He's dead.” The audience gasped, though it was obvious this was all part of the show. Sloane relaxed slightly, knowing the difference between a real gunshot and a fake in this case. “Let this be a warning to you, ladies and gentlemen, that there are monsters amongst us in the world. Beware!” They rolled the blutbad’s “body” onto a canvas tarp and dragged it away behind the stage. “Beware…” They took their bows and the audience applauded loudly before rising to leave the tent.

The three detectives moved aside from entrance to let them through, watching the performers as they descended the stage and moved behind it. “We need to be careful,” Sloane said. “They’re different wesen but live and work together…I’d guess they’re pretty protective of each other.”

“And the ringmaster,” Hank said. “You know what those all were?”

“Blutbad, Damonfeur, Fuchsbau, Siegbarste,” Sloane listed off, pointing to where all of them had been. “Out of them, the siegbarste worries me most to be honest…strong, feels less pain, determined as hell…”

“No, yeah, I’m with you there,” Hanks said, nodding.

“Let’s not go in expecting a fight just yet,” Nick said. “Otherwise we might find it.”

They gave the performers a few moments before they moved around to the side. Sloane thought she caught the ringmaster’s voice yelling, but he’d grown quiet by the time they got there.

Hedig was all smiles when he saw them come around the corner. “I'm sorry, no one's allowed back here.”

The badges were flashed and he straightened, growing more serious. “I'm Detective Griffin. This is Detective Burkhardt and Detective Larson,” Hank said.

“You Hedig?” Nick asked, though he already knew the answer.

“The one and only,” the ringmaster replied, bowing just slightly. His head was shaved but his facial hair was carefully trimmed and added to his old-time ringmaster look. “Is there a problem?”

“We're investigating the death of two women who were here last night.” Nick pulled the evidence bag with the pictures out of his jacket and held them up. “You recognize 'em?”

Hedig leaned in, humming as he looked them over. “Mm, don't remember them, no. Sorry.” Nick showed the picture to the others, who shook their heads. But he and Sloane noted, with a bit of worry, that the blutbad’s eyes turned from brown to an eerie red when he saw them and he looked away, looking troubled. “Look, we'd love to help, but we perform in front of a lot of people every evening. You can't expect us to remember two faces out of a crowd,” Hedig said, laughing a little at the idea.

Hank smiled. “That's a nice trick you guys do onstage. Want to tell me how you do it?”

Hedig smiled back, giving a flourish with his hands. “Magic.”

“Really?” Nick asked, not believing him.

Hedig chuckled and folded his hands in front of him. “Gentlemen, it's how we earn a living. Illusion's important. Without it, we'd be left with what? Reality. And as you know, reality can often be not very pretty.”

“We’re detectives, we’re aware of that,” Sloane said.

“Indeed, I’m sure. But I assure you, whatever magic we do in the show did not kill those women.”

“Maybe, but right now your carnival was there last known destination,” Sloane said.

“So, we're gonna need a list of all your employees,” Hank said.

He didn’t lose his smile, nodding thoughtfully. “Of course, yes, yes. My records are in my trailer. Would you like to follow me?” They nodded and followed Hedig out and around the carnival grounds to several trailers parked beyond. They were like brightly colored play blocks set down on the grass. One was painted bright red with the _Carnival Metamorphosia_ painted in green and gold on the side. He unlocked it and led them inside. It reminded them a bit of Marie’s trailer in that it was both Hedig’s sleeping quarters and office, with a low day bed along one wall, several books and chests about, and a desk and filing cabinets against the other wall. He sat at the desk and pulled up a laptop and booted up a small printer. “Just a moment and I’ll print you out a copy of that list,” he said.

They looked around as they waited for him to pull it up, noting a few souvenirs from all over the country. “How long you been doing this?” Hank asked.

“Ever since I was a kid,” he said honestly, sitting back while it started printing. “I ran away from home when I was 13, even though it wasn't much of a home to run away from. I worked for the man who started this, Major William John Beeman. He was a real performer. I bought it from him ten years ago,” he sighed, feeling nostalgic.

“Any of your employees cause you or someone else any trouble?” Sloane asked.

“Of course, it's the nature of our business,” he said matter-of-factly. He picked up the new printed sheet and offered it to them. “Here's the list of all the people that work here. Now, just because some of my people have been in trouble in the past, it doesn't mean to say they're in trouble now,” he said seriously and Sloane almost believed he was truly looking out for his workers but something didn’t feel sincere to her.

Nick seemed to agree, smiling but there was a hint of bite to his words. “You know, those masks you use, they seem so real.”

“Mm. It's all part of the illusion,” he said brightly. Hank took the page from him, glancing over the names, while Nick continued.

“You make them?”

He sighed, feigning resignation in confessing and yet also pride. “No, they're made in China. It's a tradition that goes back 4,000 years of mask making. These people are real craftsmen.”

They glanced at one another. “Uh, thank you for your time. If we need anything else?” Hank asked, leading him with the question that they could come back.

Hedig smiled. “Please. We are here through Sunday.”

They nodded and headed out. “We all agree he’s full of it, right?” Sloane asked when they were to the midway again.

“Oh yeah,” Nick said.

“Definitely,” Hank agreed. “But we can at least run some of these names for matches too.”

“I think we might go check with Monroe and Rosalee first,” Nick said. “I know we just had to deal with Alexander but if this is something the council needs to know about or if they have an insight on it, it could be handy.”

The others nodded, heading for the car.

\------------------------

Monroe was helping Rosalee at the shop luckily, so they were both there when the detectives pulled up.

“Hey guys,” Monroe said as they walked in. “We’re always glad to see you but I get the feeling this isn’t a social call.” Rosalee stepped down from a ladder to join them.

“I’m afraid not,” Nick sighed. “We have two victims found recently and we traced their movements to this carnival called “Carnival Metamorphosia”. And they, well…”

“They got wesen woging in front of an audience,” Sloane said. “Like, a lot of them.”

Monroe set the herbs he was looking over down in surprise. “A wesen carnival? Wow.”

“In Sellwood park,” Nick nodded. “Ever been to one?”

Monroe quickly shook his head, frowning. “No. It's not something the community is particularly proud of, but they still exist.”

Rosalee chimed in, setting down her own jars. “They aren't as common as they used to be, but it goes all the way back to Rome, from Circus Maximus to P.T. Barnum. Long history of wesen exploitation. Forcing wesen from all over the world to woge for the cheap thrill of a paying audience,” she said with disapproval.

“Which is offensive on so many levels,” Monroe added.

The detectives exchanged looks but nodded a bit. “Well, the council doesn't have a problem with that?” Nick asked.

Rosalee sighed, taking an old jar with her to the back room to wash out and motioning them to follow. “The performers present it as one big magic trick, so it technically doesn't go against the code of Swabia, but in situations like this, it's recommended that local wesen perform a sort of intervention.” She looked at Monroe who didn’t argue.

“Why?” Hank asked.

She sighed and tapped out the jar after she rinsed it in the utility sink. “The real danger isn't the exploitation of wesen. It's the Umkippen.”

They blinked, looking at one another but Sloane didn’t know what she was talking about either. “Oom-what?” Hank asked.

“Umkippen,” Monroe said. “Essentially...” He sighed, obviously a little worried about admitting this. “If we force ourselves to woge over and over again, the wesen side can, like, take over. Leaving us at the mercy of our primal urges, which is a little problematic for civilized society.”

They were quiet, taking that in and thinking it over. “If someone in this show is suffering from the Umkippen, they are a ticking time bomb,” Rosalee added, coming over to put new herbs in the jar.

“And they could've killed the two victims,” Sloane said.

“Absolutely,” she nodded. “Why do you think it was one of these performers?”

“They got pretty tight-lipped when we started asking,” Hank said.

“The Blutbad seemed a little more worked up than the others,” Nick added and Sloane nodded.

“If someone was going into this Umkippen, is there a way to tell?” she asked.

“Eventually, yeah,” Monroe said. “Look, when there's not a shred of humanity left, it's pretty obvious. And in the meantime, it's a pretty intense struggle.”

“Could there be a pattern of violent behavior?” Hank asked. They nodded and he looked at Nick and Sloane. “We gotta get to the precinct and do some background checks.”

They thanked Monroe and Rosalee and moved to head out but Rosalee quickly went over and put a hand on Nick and Hanks’ shoulder. “Can I talk to you two really quick?”

They paused, turning to look at her while Sloane was already out the door. “What is it? Something else about the umkippen?” Nick asked.

“No. Something else. I found out from Sloane yesterday her birthday is coming up. Like, it’s on the 26th,” Rosalee said.

“Seriously?” Hank asked, surprised. Nick glanced towards where Sloane went in surprise.

“I know! But I convinced her to let me plan a party for her. Nothing big she insists, and not a surprise after last time we tried that, but a little something. I wanted to tell you two so you can make sure you’re free.”

“No, yeah, we’ll be there,” Nick said. “Not a lot of time for a gift though.”

“I know…” she sighed.

Nick paused as a thought came to him and smiled. “Actually, I might have an idea…It’s a little expensive, but we could all chip in on it.”

“Really?” Rosalee asked, looking hopeful.

“Yeah. I’ll send you an email later about it.”

She smiled in relief. “Thanks, I’d appreciate that. She said no presents, but we need to get her something I feel.”

He nodded and they all jumped when the door dinged again, and Sloane stuck her head in. “Hey! Are you guys coming?”

“Yeah, sorry, just wanted to ask a quick question,” Nick said. They quickly headed back out the door and Rosalee sighed and went back to the back room to keep freshening the herbs.

She and Monroe worked together in silence for a moment before she looked up at him. “We should check that place out.”

Monroe blinked. “What? No, I... why? I hate carnivals, they give me the creeps,” he said, shuddering a little.

“But we would be able to tell if someone is suffering from the Umkippen. If they are, they need our help,” she pressed.

“Even if they've killed somebody?” he asked, worried.

“Then we tell Nick and Sloane,” she said, looking worried but firm.

“Well, okay, why don't we just bring them with us, at least?”

“Uh, because they’re Grimm. It would only make things worse,” she said, implying all that could go wrong when an umkippen saw a Grimm.

Monroe stared at her with a look of hesitancy but finally sighed loudly. “Fine.”

\-----------------------

After a full day of research, they went to Renard the next afternoon with all the information they had to run it by him. They pointed out that 4 other questionable murders had occurred along the carnival’s route. The employees came and went frequently—the longest there aside from Hedig hanging around a few years but many leaving after a few weeks. One however had been present during all the murders: Max Robbins, the blutbad from the show. Renard seemed to agree but pointed out there was no evidence yet. With two days before the carnival left, they needed to get evidence that Max was their culprit.

Pulling more records though, they determined a more worrying pattern—there were mysterious murders going back nearly 10 years. Max hadn’t been with the carnival 10 years, none of the current workers had. Except of course for the ring master.

They were piled into the car and driving back towards the carnival when Nick’s phone rang. Hank was driving so he pulled it out and answered it. “Monroe?”

“Hey, Nick,” Monroe said, and he knew from that tone of voice he was about to admit something Nick may not like. “Remember that carnival we talked about? Yeah, well, Rosalee and I thought we'd, you know, check it out for ourselves, and I think we might have gotten in a little over our heads here.”

“You're at the carnival?” he asked, glancing at Sloane and Hank. Sloane frowned.

“Yes, and the Umkippen issue is worse than we thought,” Monroe said seriously.

Nick was on alert even more. “You need to get the hell out of there.”

“I know, but see, that's where the "in over our heads" part comes in, 'cause, uh...” he sighed. “Rosalee kind of got herself put into the show.”

“What?” Nick asked, and it reminded Hank of a disapproving parent.

“But we found out who's got the Umkippen, and you were right, it's the Blutbad, Max,” he added quickly.

Nick sighed, looking heavenward for a moment, before back down. “We're almost there.”

“Good, 'cause...Oh, show’s starting, I gotta go!” he hanged up and Nick put his phone away with an annoyed grumble.

“What’s wrong?” Sloane asked.

“You weren’t listening in?”

“You told me not to do that if I can help it.”

“Right…well, um…they went to the carnival and Rosalee is now in the show. And the blutbad is definitely the worst off in the Umkippen.”

Sloane stared a moment before looking at Hank. “Faster.”

“On it,” he agreed, not arguing with that tone of voice.

Sloane was out of the car at the carnival before the car was even stopped, running and pushing her way through the crowd. Nick and Hank were close behind, calling for her to wait but was focused on getting through to the main tent.

She heard screams when she was a few feet away and people started streaming out in real fear. Sloane pushed her way through in time to see Max, fully woged, snarling and advancing on Rosalee who was in Genevieve’s costume. She was about to rush him, knife drawn and already planning where to stab him— _shoulder, incapacitate; bring it out and down to his heart, twist and bring him down till he stops moving._ But before she could, Monroe was woged and snarling as he rushed and tackled Max to the ground. They started to wrestle with each other, flashes of teeth and claws and snaps like animals.

Nick and Hank were inside the tent by then, watching the chaos unfold with dropped jaws. “Monroe!” Nick yelled.

Hedig’s head whipped around to them, knowing the Blutbad he didn’t know and with Sloane’s knife in hand. He woged into a Lowan, his bald head sprouting a more luxurious mane and his face becoming feline in nature with a huge muzzle filled with teas and clawed hands. _Those could’ve wounded the girls,_ they all thought. Hedig changed back and then ran for the side of the tent. Nick and Hank took off after them, but Sloane paused and looked back at Monroe and Max. Growling, she rushed over, intent to put Max down though Monroe was trying to tear out his throat.

“Monroe, stop!” Rosalee yelled, going over to grab his shoulders. “Stop, he’s sick! We have to help him!” Monroe paused and woged back, looking down. Sloane skidded to a stop at the front of the stage, looking unsure now. Max changed back, pale and shaking and looking confused.

“W…what happened? Where am I?” he asked. He looked close to tears. “What did I do…?”

“It’s okay,” Rosalee said softly. “It’s okay, we got you…”

His eyes fell on Sloane and he tensed, trying to back away. Rosalee looked at her pleadingly and she sighed and put the knife in her belt. “You sure about this?” she asked.

“We can help him. It’s not irreversible,” Rosalee said.

“He tried to kill you,” she pointed out, looking at him again. Monroe was nodding a little.

“But I’m okay,” Rosalee said.

“And if others weren’t that lucky?” she reminded her.

“I…I didn’t kill those girls,” he swallowed. “I woged in front of them, but…but I blacked out. I didn’t remember anything after and Hedig made me think I did it. But he told me earlier it was him…that he ‘took care of them’…” he sobbed a little.

Sloane stared a moment. He looked like he’d been through the wringer and honestly freaked out by everything. She sighed. “Well, that adds up. But if you woge again tonight, I make no promises you won’t be next.” She didn’t wait for a reply, running for the side of the tent again where Nick and Hank went.

“Hey! Sloane!” Nick yelled. She turned and spotted them in the crowd, rushing over.

“Hedig?”

“We lost him in the crowd,” Nick sighed. “I tried opening my senses but there’s just too much noise here.

“What happened with Max?” Hank asked.

“Rosalee convinced Monroe and me not to kill him. She says the umpkippen may be reversible. He woged back and seems out of it, but he said Hedig convinced him he killed the girls but actually did it himself. It was because Max woged in front of them.”

“Makes sense…he couldn’t have them spilling their secrets,” Nick said.

“But we need to find him before he escapes,” Hank said.

They heard screams coming from up the midway and glancing at one another, raced to the funhouse. Sloane put a hand on Nick’s shoulder when she saw someone coming out the back. Three someone’s actually—Genevieve, Ivan and Damian were all woged. They changed back, panting Ivan straightened when he saw them though. “Grimms…” he said in his deep voice.

Sloane eyed them and then Nick. Nick stepped up and looked at them all. “…Hedig?”

“…Inside,” Damian said. “We…I took care of him.”

“Given the burnt smell I can guess how,” Sloane said.

“If you have to punish someone, punish me,” he went on. “But we aren’t going to be his pawns anymore, not after what he did to Max.”

“We all went in there thinking how to do it,” Genevieve said. “We’re all in it together.”

“I wanted to crush him, but Damian was faster on the draw,” Ivan agreed.

“Okay, let’s all stop talking now,” Sloane said. “I’m going to pretend that last minute of conversation didn’t happen.” She looked at Nick.

Slowly he nodded. “You all just found your boss’s charred body in the funhouse, right? No idea how he got there?”

They all looked surprised at them. “I…seriously?”

“Well, we can’t guarantee anything. We’ll have to investigate the scene,” Nick said. “But off the record, we know what’s been going on and why it happened. And what Hedig did.”

“Exactly,” Sloane said. “But you might go check on Max. Rosalee and Monroe are looking after him. They’re friends of ours and they want to help.

Genevieve didn’t need further convincing as she turned to limp back to the tent as fast as she could with a walking stick. Ivan and Damian followed.

“…Surprised you let them go so easily.”

“Well, they killed the wesen I wanted to kill,” she sighed, putting her knife where it needed to go in her side holster. “But I don’t have anything on them killing innocent people. And Rosalee wants to help them, so…my hands are tied.”

Nick smiled a little. “Well…we better secure the scene.”

\----------------

In the end, Renard agreed that there was not enough evidence to convict anyone of Hedig’s murder—but they did have a bit of circumstantial evidence that Hedig may have killed several of the victims in the past. As Renard had said, it wasn’t exactly justice in the eyes of the law, but Sloane was okay with it. That had been her brand of justice for a long time.

Rosalee knew a place that Max could find help for the umpkippen and start the long road to recovery. Genevieve, Ivan and Damian took Max secured in the back with them to get him there. They weren’t sure what they’d do from here on out, but they knew anything was better than what they had been doing. And they took Rosalee’s advice to look out for one another to heart.

A couple of days passed in relative quiet before it was the 26th. Sloane was a little apprehensive of what Rosalee had planned, but she’d agreed to meet her at Nick and Juliette’s house for the party. Mostly because they had a bigger dining table than Sloane did, and a little bit bigger living area. Rosalee was waiting for her outside when she pulled up, smiling more excitedly than the birthday girl.

“Hey!” she hugged her with a grin. “Ready?”

“Yeah…no glitter, right?”

“No glitter,” Rosalee confirmed. She opened the door and inside there were just a few tasteful decorations, like a nice “Happy Birthday” banner, put up. No surprises, everyone just cheered and toasted her when she walked in. Hank, Nick, Juliette, Monroe, Bud, and Cynthia were all there. Sloane was a bit surprised that Cynthia came but smiled none the less.

“Hey…Um, Ms. Calvert invited me…hope that’s okay.”

“Of course. Good to see you.”

She smiled, looking a little nervous but that could mostly be because she was surrounded by wesen, so Sloane did appreciate she came.

“My wife hopes you like the cake,” Bud said. “She had to go help finish stuff for another party, but she was happy to make you something.”

Sloane smiled. “Well, thank her for me when you see her. I’m sure I’ll enjoy it whatever it is.”

He grinned and they made small talk, pouring a little wine for her and just having a good time. She noted Nick checked his phone at one point and walked off but figured it was just last-minute work stuff because he came right back.

“So, I think we should do presents first, then cake,” Rosalee said.

“Presents? Guys, really, I didn’t want a big fuss…” Sloane said, looking a bit worried.

“We needed to get you something,” Hank said. “Nick had an idea and we all chipped in.”

Juliette smiled as she handed her a box that was large but relatively thin. She sighed but it was a fond sound and she worked to unwrap the silver wrapping paper, then open the box. She couldn’t help a soft “oh” that escaped her. “Guys…” She put the box top down quickly and ran her hands over the soft leather inside. It was a charcoal grey leather jacket—and it wasn’t just a run of the mill kind if the tag laid on top was to be believed. Durable, protective, weatherproof, all kinds of features that made it expensive enough she’d never splurged on one like for herself because she’d have to probably order it.

“You keep having to replace your jackets,” Nick said. “So, I suggested this. Managed to get it shipped extra quick—the company has a police program. Any thing happens to it, they’ll repair at no charge other than shipping it back to them, or a big discount on a new one if they can’t fix it. Hank and I have taken advantage of that.” He patted his own jacket.

“But this thing is made to take a beating,” Hank added. “We got you the kind meant for motorcycles. You can fall from a moving cycle and this thing will protect you from road rash, so it’s tough. Not sure what wesen stuff it can handle, but it should be better than cotton or polyester.”

Sloane pulled it from the box, looking over it. Gussets in the arm pits for cooling, the zipper at a slight diagonal for fashion, nice wide lapels that can be pulled up for protection, pockets on the inside and out. Sloane blushed when she realized this was like a dream jacket for her. “I…love it,” she said honestly. She set it on her lap and took off her rather threadbare hoodie, setting it aside to pull the jacket on.

“Looks like the right size,” Rosalee said in relief. “How does it feel?”

“Awesome!” she said. She zipped it all the way up, moving her arms around, moving like she would in a fight. “It’s got a little room, but I like it that way.”

“It looks great,” Cynthia said.

Sloane smiled warmly. “Thank you…really.”

“Well, we’re not done!” Rosalee said. “We still have cake!”

Sloane nodded, taking off the jacket and folding it back into the box. While she did, two more guests brought out the cake with a sparkler on top. Sloane turned back around and gasped again. “Aunt Jean?! Aunt Mim?!”

“Hey there, girly,” Mim grinned.

“Surprise!” Jean smiled, setting the cake down on the table. “Did you think we’d miss your birthday now that we know where you are?”

“We were planning on coming up over the weekend, but Nick called us to let us know about the party. Managed to get here, but the traffic was awful! And then we couldn’t find the house and—”

“We made it, that’s what’s important,” Jean said, taking her girlfriend’s arm. “And we get to meet your friends!”

Sloane smiled and walked over to hug them. “Yeah, you do. I’m so happy you came…”

They smiled back and hugged her hard. “But look at this cake!” Mim said. Sloan looked over. It was dark blue and decorated with stars and a sparkly sprinkle streak that looked like the milky way, Sloane blushed at how pretty it was, but had to snort to stop a laugh when she saw a small toy Enterprise Starship from Star Trek on it.

“That was my idea,” Jean said. “Nick texted us a picture of the cake and I made a quick stop. Your grandmother would definitely have done it.”

Sloane’s smile turned nostalgic and she hugged them again. “Almost 20 years…” she muttered. They didn’t say anything though they must’ve heard, hugging her back tightly.

The cake was of course delicious, chocolate with vanilla buttercream frosting. They ate and chatted and to Sloane’s horror her aunts brought photo albums. She knew she wouldn’t live this down but had to laugh at some moments. There were jokes about her ballerina days, first days of school, missing baby teeth, the whole messy childhood. Mim and Jean took photos as well with a camera to print later.

The evening started to wind down and leftovers were divided up and sent home with pretty much everyone. Mim and Jean had already gotten a hotel and would be staying a few days to catch up and see the sights. Sloane accepted and reciprocated hugs from all of them as things were ending. As she headed out with a Tupperware of cake and her new jacket in a box to put in the passenger seat of her car carefully.

“Sloane, wait, um…there’s one more thing,” Rosalee said, following her quickly. Sloane closed the door of the car but walked back to meet her halfway.

“What, more? Seriously, this has been enough,” Sloane laughed. “It’s…been the best birthday I’ve had in decades.”

Rosalee tried not to think how such a minimal effort birthday had that title but smiled widely. “I’m glad. But actually, there’s something I need to ask for from you—or, regarding you. I wanted to ask before but part of me kind of thought you might not want to do it so I’m…not sure I should ask, even though I really want to.”

“…Okay, that’s vague and kind of worrying,” Sloane said, frowning. “I mean…does it involve hurting someone? Did someone hurt you? Who do I kill?”

“No, no,” she said quickly, laughing a little. “Nothing like that, at all.” She took a deep breath and looked at Sloane to be braver. “Sloane…You’ve never been married, right?”

Sloane blinked rapidly, confused again. “Uh…not technically?”

“Not technically?” Rosalee asked, not expecting that.

“Well, I mean…” she said, flustered a bit. “There was a time I was with someone and we kind of thought we would but…” She shrugged, not wanting to go on if her expression was anything to go by.

Rosalee knew not to push so let it go even though her curiosity was burning. “Well…I’m having my sister as Matron of Honor, but…I was hoping you’d be my Maid of Honor.”

Sloane’s eyes widened and her hand went slack. “I…you want me to be your Maid of Honor?”

“Yes,” she said, a little nervous now. “If you want, I mean…”

“…Isn’t that like…for your _best_ friend?” Sloane asked slowly.

Rosalee blinked before smiling. “You are my best friend, Sloane. One of the best I’ve ever had, I think. The last year has been…wild and up and down but once we got to understand each other…It felt like I’d known you forever. And there’s no one else I can think of I’d want as my maid of honor more.” Sloane stared and for a moment Rosalee thought she saw her eyes get shiny and a little misty. Rosalee gasped when she suddenly pulled her close and wrapped her arms tightly around her. She had never seen Sloane get like this. She thought she’d be a bit more standoffish, maybe not interested in being part of the pomp and circumstance of a wedding. Being emotional…she wasn’t anticipating it, but she smiled and hugged her back. “Is this a yes?” she asked after a moment.

“Yes!” Sloane pulled back, blushing. “Yes! I…thank you,” she said sincerely. Rosalee smiled, hugging her again. She wondered why she had been nervous now. Nick smiled, watching them from the porch. It was funny to think Sloane tried to kill Rosalee a year ago—now Sloane was ready to kill a anything that threatened her. And hugging her. People laugh at the whole “power of friendship” idea, but it really was amazing what could change with it.

**Author's Note:**

> So, I really figured Sloane wouldn't let Wu just freak out and get committed. She's much more direct most of the time unless she can lie really well. Except she didn't want to do that to him. But the truth doesn't always set you free obviously and poor Wu is still going through a lot of shit. There will be a few more changes with him knowing the truth so much sooner...
> 
> Also, I decided on Sloane's birthday and wanted to include it :D I chose March 26 because, well...it's Leonard Nemoy's birthday ^^; I chose September 18 for Rosalee mostly at Random because I wanted it to be coming up.
> 
> I'm more excited for the next chapter though as we keep moving forward through the show's storylines!


End file.
